The work formed part of a Ministry of Defence programme aimed at sharpening the UK’s anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capability. Voyant, a University of Liverpool spin-out, worked with the MOD, the Royal Navy, Thales UK and Oxford-based AI company Mind Foundry on the project.
What was tested
At the centre of the demonstration was the Thales Sonar 2087, the towed array sonar fitted to the Royal Navy’s ASW-specialist Type 23 frigates. Voyant layered its probabilistic tracking and particle-filter software on top of the system to make better use of the acoustic data the sensor was already collecting.
That improved data was then passed to Mind Foundry’s AI-enabled decision support system. According to Voyant, the combination gave operators a clearer picture of the underwater environment, more confident tracks and quicker decision-making.
The company says its software:
- improves detection performance from existing sensors
- holds tracks on weaker and more distant contacts
- raises confidence in target classification
- automates tracking tasks, easing the load on sonar operators
Upgrading without new hardware
The pitch is essentially one of software-defined capability. Rather than waiting for a new sensor to be designed, procured and fitted, Voyant’s approach plugs into equipment that is already deployed and extracts more value from it.
The project was run as a spiral development, with the MOD, Royal Navy and industry partners in regular contact so the technology could evolve against real operational needs while staying compatible with existing naval systems. This is also a prime example of UK sovereign software being brought quickly to bear alongside frontline expertise.
What Voyant says
Chief Executive James Norwood argued that current sonar sets are already gathering more than traditional processing can make use of.
“Modern sonar systems already collect more information than conventional processing techniques can fully exploit. Our software is designed to unlock the additional information, enabling operators to detect, track and understand underwater threats with greater confidence without the need to replace existing hardware,” he said.
He added that the project showed what can be achieved when government, large primes and smaller innovators work together, saying the pairing of advanced sensing with AI decision support could deliver capability that “strengthens operational effectiveness while reducing integration risk and accelerating future capability development.”
Why it matters
Undersea awareness has climbed the UK’s defence agenda as activity in the North Atlantic and around the British Isles increases, and as concern grows over the vulnerability of subsea cables and pipelines. Getting more out of the sensors already at sea is an attractive route for a navy with a limited number of ASW hulls and long timelines for new platforms.
About Voyant
Voyant Innovations draws on more than two decades of research at the University of Liverpool into target tracking, advanced sensing and multi-sensor data fusion. Its software is designed to be sensor and platform agnostic, and the company says it can work with radar, sonar, electronic warfare, and electro-optical and infrared systems.
Beyond maritime ASW, Voyant is targeting applications including earlier threat detection, navigation in GNSS-denied environments and trusted autonomy across land, sea, air and multi-domain operations.
More information is available at voyant.vision.
