Patent ID: 8223590

Claim:
A laser-acoustic system for detection of an underwater object, comprising: a plurality of acoustic sensors deployed to provide a predetermined area of coverage in a body of water, a location of each of the plurality of acoustic sensors being known, each of the plurality of acoustic sensors being configured to receive and transmit data; an airborne laser source configured to fire laser pulses into the body of water; and a processor configured to receive and process data from the acoustic sensors and the airborne laser source; wherein the airborne laser source fires a plurality of laser pulses into the water in a pattern associated with the known locations of the acoustic sensors, each of the laser pulses being configured to generate a corresponding laser-acoustic pulse source as a result of ionization of a volume of the water caused by compression of the laser pulse in the volume of water, wherein the laser pulse is compressed in the water through any combination of: 1) lens focusing, 2) optical group velocity dispersion induced longitudinal compression, and 3) transverse self-focusing via a nonlinear optical Kerr effect, each laser-acoustic pulse source having a predetermined desired shape at a predetermined arbitrary desired underwater location, the laser-acoustic pulse sources generating a corresponding plurality of acoustic pulses traveling through the water, data of a location of each of the laser-acoustic pulse sources being transmitted to the processor; wherein at least some of the plurality of acoustic pulses are received by the acoustic sensors, the received acoustic pulses being received via one of a direct path and a scattered path, the scattered path being associated with an underwater object, each of the received acoustic pulses having an acoustic signature associated therewith which is recorded by the acoustic sensor receiving the acoustic pulse; wherein each of the plurality of acoustic sensors transmits data of its recorded acoustic signatures to the processor; and wherein the processor transforms the data of the received acoustic signatures, together with data of the known locations of the acoustic sensors and the locations of the laser-acoustic pulse sources, into data of a location of the underwater object.