Sonardyne to Participate at International Port Security Conference

Commercial ports face a wide variety of security challenges, ranging from cargo theft and smuggling to the ever present threat of terrorist activity.

Surveillance technologies to detect unauthorised access on land are widely utilised however for many ports, tackling the threat posed from access under the water in the form of divers and autonomous vehicles, remains largely unaddressed.

Maritime security company Sonardyne International Ltd will be discussing this topic at the upcoming International Port Security conference in London at the Holiday Inn Regents Park, 4th-5th June 2014.

Nick Swift, Maritime Security Business Manager for Sonardyne, will present ‘Closing the surveillance gap’, looking at the vulnerabilities that remain in port security domain awareness and how the deployment of intruder detection sonar technology provides a reliable and cost effective solution. In his conference paper Nick will discuss the technical challenges of reliable detection of underwater intruders, and identify how Sonardyne’s Sentinel intruder detection system has been designed from the ground up to meet these challenges.

Deployed at strategic ports in Europe, the Middle East and in the USA, Sentinel is recognised as the market-leading intruder detection sonar. It provides 360° long range detection, tracking and classification of underwater threats approaching a protected port or waterside asset. Sentinel can be configured as a standalone portable system for use by mobile security teams, networked with multiple sonars for wide area coverage or integrated in existing Command and Control (C2) solutions for complete domain awareness.

“Ports present a highly attractive target for those involved in organised crime and those seeking to create economic disruption through terrorist activities,” commented Nick Swift. “CCTV, radar and access cater well for on land protection, however underwater surveillance remains a neglected area. In participating at International Port Security, we hope to redress this vulnerability.”