Royal Canadian Navy to Use Aurora Towfish
International Submarine Engineering Ltd is to provide two commercial off-the-shelf, high-speed Aurora Towfish, which will be used to support mine detection missions and route survey operations for the Royal Canadian Navy’s maritime coastal defence vessels. The Aurora Towfish will include modifications to integrate new sensors and navigation equipment, including an L3 Klein side-scan sonar, and an R2Sonic bathymetric multibeam echosounder. The modular design of the vehicle makes it easy to exchange sonar payloads.
The Aurora towfish has been proven as a viable component of the Royal Canadian Navy’s Route Survey strategy. In conjunction with the Dorado Semi-submersible Technical Demonstrator, Aurora has been used in many sea trials, demonstrations and evaluations since 1999. Further capabilities of Aurora were demonstrated during an evaluation in Esquimalt January 2008. There, Aurora was integrated and tested with the HMCS White Horse Route Survey System Payload. Trials in Saanich Inlet, and the approaches to Esquimalt Harbour demonstrated Aurora’s capability to deploy various sonar modules in operational survey conditions.
