Shells fired from the gun of a ship create an underwater explosion that is
used to drive a sonar system. Sonobuoys [201] and/or a ship-towed array
measure acoustic signals caused by the underwater explosion. A ship
processing component [306] analyzes the signals and locates reflections of
objects [102] in the signals. In addition to controlling the location at
which to fire a shell, an adjustable fuze on the shell may be set to
thereby control the depth at which the shell explodes. The low-frequency
impulsive nature of the explosion makes it particularly suited for
detecting objects in a littoral environment.
