Israeli firm DSIT unveils multi-layer undersea threat detection system

Israeli underwater defense company DSIT Solutions unveiled a layered Underwater Domain Awareness concept at CNE 2026, introducing for the first time its BlueShield counter-UUV sonar alongside an integrated architecture designed to give naval commanders a continuous, AI-supported picture of everything moving beneath the surface from diver-range distances to the approaches of major ports and straits.

DSIT Solutions, a Tel Aviv Stock Exchange-listed company with three decades of underwater defense experience, presented the UDA concept on May 13, 2026. The system integrates multiple sonar platforms across short, medium, and long detection ranges, fusing their outputs through a unified command and control center that uses AI-supported data merging to build what the company describes as a holistic underwater picture. The threat set the system is designed to address spans the full range of modern undersea threats: conventional submarines, midget submarines, Swimmer Delivery Vehicles, Unmanned Underwater Vehicles, Diver Propulsion Vehicles, and Special Forces combat divers.

The BlueShield is a seabed-mounted active and passive sonar system derived from DSIT’s BlackFish Hull Mounted Sonar, which the company describes as globally proven, and is specifically designed to secure critical areas including borders, ports, and naval bases against unmanned underwater vehicle threats. Counter-UUV capability has become an urgent requirement for naval operators worldwide as the proliferation of autonomous and remotely operated undersea vehicles has outpaced the detection infrastructure of most port and coastal defense installations.

The short-range tier of the UDA architecture relies on DSIT’s AquaShield Diver Detection Sonar and PointShield Portable Diver Detection Sonar, both designed for high-resolution detection of divers and UUVs in critical areas at relatively close ranges. Both systems feature automated detection that does not require a real-time operator, delivering what DSIT describes as very low false alarm rates with sensitive threat detection. That operator-independent operation matters in the resource-constrained environment of most port security operations, where maintaining continuous human monitoring of sonar feeds around the clock is neither practical nor affordable at the staffing levels most navies can sustain.

The SeaShield anchors the long-range end of the detection architecture and is described by DSIT as the most advanced and distinctive component of the UDA solution. A fixed, low-frequency sonar system combining active and passive operating modes, the SeaShield enables automatic detection and tracking at very long ranges through what the company describes as distinctive structural design and advanced acoustic processing techniques. Low-frequency active sonar has long been the preferred detection method for long-range submarine surveillance because low frequencies propagate further through water and are less attenuated by thermal layers and ocean noise. The SeaShield’s integration of both active and passive capability in a fixed seabed installation positions it for coverage of large maritime areas including straits and access routes to ports and oil terminals, where permanent undersea surveillance infrastructure is more cost-effective than maintaining patrol vessels or helicopters on continuous rotation.

Amir Alon, DSIT’s Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, described the operational context driving the UDA concept directly. “The underwater domain is facing a rapidly increasing number of advanced unmanned underwater threats,” Alon said in the company’s announcement. “Our UDA solution gives a response to these growing challenges — delivering continuous, long-range, layered detection that enables comprehensive underwater control.” The layered architecture is the key engineering choice: overlapping detection ranges from the three system tiers mean that any undersea contact moving from open water toward a protected port or installation passes through progressively more sensitive and specific detection zones, with each tier providing targeting data to the unified C2 center that none of the tiers could provide alone.

The AI-supported data merging at the command and control center addresses a problem that has challenged multi-sensor surveillance architectures since their inception: how to fuse incomplete, ambiguous detections from sensors operating at different ranges, frequencies, and sensitivities into a single coherent picture that an operator can act on without being overwhelmed by data. Modern machine learning approaches to sensor fusion have advanced the state of the art considerably, and DSIT’s inclusion of AI support in the UDA fusion layer reflects where the industry has moved rather than a novel claim. The company does not specify the AI architecture or its performance characteristics in the available source material, so those details remain unconfirmed.