Thales Unveils Sonar 76Nano to Bring Anti-Submarine Warfare to Uncrewed Systems.

Thales has revealed Sonar 76Nano, a compact, modular sonar system designed for uncrewed underwater vehicles and fixed seabed nodes, with a Royal Navy demonstration planned for December 17. The system reflects NATO’s growing shift toward distributed, uncrewed sensing to extend anti-submarine warfare coverage while reducing risk to crews.

Thales Group announced on December 15 that it has developed Sonar 76Nano, a miniaturized acoustic detection system intended to move core anti-submarine warfare and seabed surveillance missions into the uncrewed domain for the UK, NATO, and partner navies. According to the company, the sonar progressed from concept to advanced prototype in just ten months and will be publicly demonstrated with the Royal Navy later this month as part of a technology showcase focused on future maritime operations.
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Thales Sonar 76Nano is a modular sonar for UUVs and seabed nodes, combining passive and active ASW, wide-area seabed imaging, low-signature underwater messaging, and onboard AI to extend submarine situational awareness at standoff (Picture source: Thales Group).

At the hardware level, 76Nano is built around a tiled “wet end” derived from the Royal Navy’s Sonar 2076 acoustic lineage, scaled down into repeatable panels that can be wrapped around a vehicle’s flanks. Receive tiles measure 75 cm by 75 cm and can be arranged in arrays of up to 48 tiles on an extra-large UUV’s port and starboard sides and bow, paired with a single 40 cm by 40 cm transmit tile that provides the active element. Thales worked with UK SME Neptune Sonar on the transmit portion, underscoring that the system is engineered for modular growth rather than a one-off bespoke array.

That architecture matters tactically because it lets navies “buy aperture” in increments. A larger UUV can carry more tiles for better sensitivity and bearing accuracy, while smaller vehicles can still host a reduced fit for screening and route reconnaissance. Technical assessments indicate that a large tiled installation could, in theory, approach the detection performance of a diesel-electric submarine operating in acoustically complex littorals, and deliver roughly two-thirds of a nuclear attack submarine sonar suite’s capability in open ocean conditions, a telling indicator of how far miniaturized flank-array physics can now be pushed.

For submarine operations, the value is reach and discretion. Thales describes 76Nano-equipped UUVs as an ASW “tripwire” that can be placed where manned platforms would rather not linger, extending decision time and lowering crew risk. In practice, an SSN can remain in a quieter holding area while one or more UUVs listen ahead, cueing the submarine with earlier contact bearings and enabling smarter choices about when to sprint, when to trail, and when to stay silent.

What differentiates 76Nano from many compact sonars is its deliberate multi-mission design. Beyond passive and active ASW, Thales built in a synthetic aperture sonar mode aimed at critical undersea infrastructure protection, aligning the system with NATO’s growing focus on seabed security. The sonar operates in the medium-frequency band, trading some high-frequency survey resolution for swath widths of several kilometers and faster wide-area change detection, with limited seabed penetration to help spot partially buried objects near cables and pipelines.

Another operational enabler is communications. Thales states the sonar can send underwater messages with a low risk of detection, using narrow-beam, low-probability-of-intercept acoustic messaging that prioritizes short, actionable packets over raw data dumps. The concept is edge processing: onboard AI classifies contacts, elevates the most time-sensitive cues, and keeps full datasets onboard for post-mission exploitation and model improvement.

Programmatically, 76Nano is entering a fast-moving requirement cycle. Thales has invested more than GBP 2 million since the start of 2025, completed design, build, and testing, and is studying production approaches. The wider pull comes from the UK’s layered North Atlantic sensor network concept, reinforced by fresh Ministry of Defense-backed experimentation that aims to get operational sensing into the water in 2026.