Kongsberg Maritime will provide underwater equipment for the US Coast Guard’s Integrated Anti-swimmer System (IAS). Following 9/11, the US Coast Guard was charged with assessing the level of threat and the capability to deal with it, within every US port. A large concern was the threat of malicious swimmers and divers to commercial piers, government and military vessels, cruise ships, terminals and other high value assets. The IAS was developed as a reaction to this threat.

The SM 2000 Underwater Surveillance System, manufactured by Kongsberg Mesotech (Port Coquitlam, B.C., Canada), forms the basis of the IAS. The SM 2000 sound head detects and tracks potential underwater threats and the processor classifies the contacts and alerts system operators to their presence. High frequency sonar images positively identify whether the contact is a swimmer or diver and not just debris, marine life or some other object. In many tests with actual divers, moving at different speeds and in different directions, the SM 2000 was able to detect them every time. The sonar can differentiate between animals and humans in part because of their different shapes and typical movements under water.