Fremantle-based company L3-Nautronix have signed a $43 million contract to upgrade the Hydrographic Survey System on the Royal Australian Navy’s four Paluma-Class Survey Motor Launches.

The project will reduce the time and effort required to complete hydrographic surveys and navigational charts of Australia ’s coastal waters, with tactical elements of the upgraded system allowing naval vessels to operate in poorly charted waters at short notice.

The vessels will be equipped with advanced modern sensors and sonars, such as the Petrel Sonar, manufactured in Australia by Thales Australia , and data handling technologies through the upgrade.

Navy will also receive nine portable hydrographic survey systems for use on small craft, making hydrographic survey operations in shallow waters, that larger survey ships can not reach, possible.

Three of these portable systems will be a more advanced tactical survey system. The tactical system is a portable replica of the Survey Motor Launch System and will provide flexibility to rapidly deploy hydrographic survey teams, such as the Deployable Geospatial Survey Team based in Wollongong.

L3-Communications Nautronix will be responsible for the purchase of the equipment and undertake the systems integration. Defence Materiel Organisation anticipates delivery of the first system by April 2009. This project will be the first occasion the suite of hydrographic sensors will be integrated into a single data logging and processing system.