Investigation of a Towline with Segmented Fairing for the Variable Depth Sonar System.

The Naval Ship Research and Development Center has established a continuing research program directed toward improving the Variable Depth Sonar VDS system. One major area of concern is the system towline. The VDS system has been plagued with problems of towline kiting and fairing breakage caused by the hydromechanic forces acting on the towline during towing and reeling operations. The problem has been present with both sectional enclosed and continuous trailing fairing. The sea trial was directed toward determining whether the towline would kite during towing operation and determining the durability of the new material in the towline.