Russia allegedly gained access to advanced Western sonar equipment and used it to create the underwater hydroacoustic tracking system "Harmony". This was written by military expert Brandon J. Weichert in an article for The National Interest.
The Russians are stealing sensitive American equipment. They had access to technologies that were then used in the development of "Harmony". The system is in service with the Russian Navy and is designed to protect the passage to secret submarine bases in the Arctic.
Weichert suggested that the complex covers the area from Murmansk to Franz Josef Land.
The "Harmony" likely includes bottom robotic systems, underwater drones, and communication systems for detecting approaching NATO submarines.
Weichert referred to information from The Washington Post, according to which the Cypriot company Mostrello Commercial Ltd purchased high-tech equipment from the USA, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Italy and other NATO countries. According to some reports, Mostrello's client was the Moscow firm "Department of Advanced Technologies" (UPT).
Why is "Harmony" dangerous?
Thanks to the latest hydroacoustic tracking system, Russian Navy ships can track American submarines. This negates the key advantage that the United States previously had, Weichert believes.
The US Navy leadership believed that they could count on the stealth of their own submarines. "Harmony" will be an effective tool that will help prevent Americans from entering the Arctic.
What is known about the "Harmony" tracking system?
In 2016, Russian media wrote that the Russian Ministry of Defense had begun deploying a unique underwater hydroacoustic tracking system, which received the index "Harmony". Its developers were named the Comet Corporation of Space Systems for Special Purposes, the Malachite Central Design Bureau and the Source NIIAI. It was expected that the complex would be fully operational no later than 2020.
The key element of "Harmony" is robotic autonomous bottom stations (ADS), which are installed by submarines. ADSs are combined into a single network covering an area of hundreds of kilometers. The station's equipment processes the information received about the situation and transmits it to the command post.
The expert community believed that the carriers of the ADS would be the special-purpose submarines Belgorod and Khabarovsk. However, this information has not been confirmed.
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