Towed Underwater Systems
Phoenix has decades of experience with towed underwater systems beginning in 1999 when Phoenix provided side scan sonar and ROV support to locate, identify, and recover the lost Israeli submarine INS Dakar in 2,950 msw – a submarine that had been missing since 1969.
Since then, Phoenix teams have worked on hundreds of commercial and military projects, backed by experienced and highly skilled engineers and project managers, providing quality seabed imaging and search and recovery support to our clients worldwide.
Towed Pinger Locator
The Phoenix Towed Pinger Locator (TPL) System provides the capability to detect and locate emergency relocation pingers on downed aircraft to a maximum depth of 6,000 msw anywhere in the world. Commercial aircraft pingers are mounted directly on the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, the recovery of which is critical to an accident investigation.
The system consists of (but not all required on every mission):
- Tow fish
- Tow cable
- Winch
- Hydraulic Power Unit (HPU)
- Generator
- Topside Control Console
The tow fish carries a passive listening device for detecting pingers that automatically transmit an acoustic pulse. The Signal Analyzing Software examines acoustic signals ranging from 0-48 kHz. This software provides frequency markers for Zero Beat, VFO and audio bandwidth. It also provides the ability to input, display and log NMEA GPS data along with their respective acoustic files. The software delivers the capability to log five specified frequency amplitudes, which, along with GPS data, creates 3-D map of pinger signal strength which is referenced to latitude and longitude.
Towing Systems Winches
Phoenix owns two winches for towing system support that have depth capabilities of 2,000 msw and can tow our TPL and a variety of side scan sonars. They come equipped with:
- 4,000 m of Coax Cable
- PMI Terminations
- Full Sparing
Side Scan Sonar
Side scan sonar is one of the most effective tools for seabed mapping, having the ability to search a large area quickly and produce a detailed picture of the bottom. Phoenix has access to multiple vendors to easily rent one for our clients to utilize in conjunction with one of our towing system winches.