Applications and results at sea of adaptive array processing in passive sonar

Adaptive array processing has been extensively studied during several decades for underwater acoustic applications. But up to now, very few applications have been developed, or, at least, appear in the literature. This is due to the relatively great amount of calculation needed by adaptive processing compared to conventional beamforming, and perhaps, by the relatively disappointing results obtained in the first applications (mainly towed array in deep water) when considering the needed extra processing load. The results obtained in recent applications demonstrate the great interest of adaptive beamforming.