British Navy HMS Portland F79 completes acceptance sea trials with new Ultra Electronics Sonar 2150.

According to information released on July 30, 2021, British Navy has successfully completed the first acceptance sea trials of the Sonar 2150 from the company Ultra electronics onboard the HMS Portland F79, Type 23 ‘Duke’-class frigate.
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British Royal Navy HMS Portland Type 23 Duke-class frigate. (Picture source British MoD)

The trial took place over a number of days at sea, operating the sonar, detecting and tracking the “target”. Despite somewhat challenging weather conditions, the Ultra trials team successfully proved both active and passive performance in conjunction with Royal Navy personnel.

The 2150 hull-mounted sonar, designed by Ultra, replaces the Sonar Type 2050, which has been in service with the Royal Navy since the 1990s. It incorporates a state-of-the-art user interface to improve operator effectiveness and usability. The digital control of the outboard array minimizes interference, reduces ship cabling requirements, aiming to maximise reliability, and extends array maintenance intervals. The sonar will be fitted to Royal Navy Type 23 frigates.

As part of its ‘Sea Searcher’ hull-mounted sonar range, Ultra has developed two smaller and lighter weight variants of the Type 2150 for naval vessels up to 1,000 tonnes and 2,000 tonnes, respectively.

With state-of-the-art in-board processing and innovative user displays, this family of sonar systems provides a powerful anti-submarine warfare capability for patrol vessels, frigates and other vessels worldwide.

The HMS Portland is a Type 23 frigate in service with the British Royal Navy. The ship was accepted into service by the Royal Navy on 15 December 2000 and was commissioned on 3 May the following year. 

Citing the Naval-Technology website, Type 23 frigates were originally designed for anti-submarine warfare (ASW), but the addition of the vertical-launched Seawolf point missile defence system and the Boeing Harpoon surface-to-surface missile has expanded its role to include anti-surface warfare (ASuW).