Overview of Australian R&D in mine imaging

The Australian program in mine imaging was carried out under the Capability and Technology Demonstrator Program. The work on mine imaging was carried out by Midspar Systems in collaboration with DSTO. The aim of the program was to integrate advances in wide band technology to develop a system capable of detecting, localizing and classifying all mine types including stealth mines both on the sea floor and buried. A fundamental part of a project such as this is to understand the nature of the acoustic signals reflected from various mine types and an extensive program was conducted to measure these over a wide frequency band. The final stage of the program was to develop a system capable of carrying out the sonar measurements and overcome the complexities of an operational environment on the floor of Sydney Harbour.