SEA’s KraitSense offers navies a lightweight, agile sonar system, boosting anti-submarine warfare and ISR in open-ocean and littoral operations.

Persistent and agile solutions are increasingly vital to meet the growing demand for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) across both open ocean and littoral environments.

Part of SEA’s Krait product suite, KraitSense is helping to support these growing needs.

KraitSense is a lightweight, cost-effective alternative to traditional sonar, combining advanced passive sensing with a low-profile, low-power design to provide a solution for crewed and uncrewed platforms.

At the heart of KraitSense is KraitArray, SEA’s compact and miniaturised passive acoustic line array which can be used in towed or static configurations. Engineered for maximum performance with minimal drag, weight and energy use, KraitArray enables smaller vessels and uncrewed platforms to carry out ASW tasks previously restricted to larger ASW-specific naval platforms.

KraitSense is deployable from uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) and uncrewed undersea vehicles (UUVs), enabling navies to enhance their undersea situational awareness without expanding deployed manpower or increasing platform size.

It can be retrofitted to existing vessels, providing new capability to existing fleets and its modular design allows for integration with other naval systems, supporting interoperability and joint mission capability. KraitSense includes innovative processing software architecture and the ability to rapidly increase capability on in-service and deployed platforms allowing for efficient upgrades as new threats emerge.

“In a shifting threat landscape, agility and adaptability are critical,” Chris Tucker, Sonar Systems Technical Authority at SEA said. “KraitSense supports lean crewed, remotely operated and autonomous platforms with intelligent acoustic performance, unlocking new approaches to ASW, ISR and maritime situational awareness.”

The technology has been adopted by navies across the globe to enhance their ASW capability. For example, SEA is supplying two KraitSense systems to a South-East Asian navy for its new offshore patrol vessel programme. Each system includes the KraitArray sensor, handling equipment, processing hardware and software, and an interactive user control station that allows operators to view, analyse and report sonar contact data.

This helps navies adapt to today’s dynamic geopolitical environment, where both active and passive sonar solutions are essential. While new platforms such as the Royal Navy’s Type 26 use active sonar for high-power detection, KraitSense complements the technology with silent, persistent surveillance, ensuring a layered and continuous approach to undersea awareness across deep-water and littoral operations.

SEA will showcase its full Krait product suite at DSEI UK 2025 in September, with an on-stand demonstration of a typical crewed system and operator software. On the dockside, KraitSense uncrewed will be on show, integrated with ACUA’s uncrewed surface vehicle, Pioneer.

For more information visit SEA at DSEI on stand N6-120 or visit their website.