NEW DELHI: The Navy on Friday formally inducted four types of indigenously developed sonars that will boost its underwater surveillance capability.

The systems included Abhay – compact hull mounted sonar for shallow water crafts, Humsa UG – upgrade for the Humsa sonar system, NACS – Nearfield Acoustic Characterisation System, and AIDSS – Advanced Indigenous Distress sonar system for submarines.

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar, who handed over the sonars to Navy, praised the force along with DRDO, and said he expects more synergy in the coming days. The systems have been designed and developed by NPOL, a Kochi-based laboratory of DRDO

With the induction of these four systems, the underwater surveillance capability of the Indian Navy will get a boost, besides providing a fillip to the quest for self-reliance in this critical area of technology.

Abhay is an advanced activecum-passive integrated sonar system designed and developed for the smaller platforms such as shallow water crafts and coastal surveillance/patrol vessels. It is capable of detecting, localising, classifying and tracking sub-surface and surface targets in both its active and passive modes of operation.