A waterway shield system comprises a plurality of autonomous underwater
nodes wherein each underwater node comprises acoustic detectors which may
comprise horizontal and/or vertical acoustic arrays which may be directly
mounted thereto or extend outwardly therefrom. Each underwater node
comprises an acoustic modem for transmitting high resolution acoustic data
to a gateway node that provides a connection to a surface system and a
network of other underwater nodes in other waterways. The data from the
underwater nodes may be utilized to produce acoustic attribute data for
hulls of ships in the waterways. An acoustic database is provided that
compiles the predetermined acoustic attribute data for a variety of ships
and other entities thereby providing previously stored identifying means.
The acoustic database is utilized in conjunction with one or more
databases of other physical attributes of ships or other objects to
thereby provide an automated identification process.
