MILESTONE CHRONOLOGY 2011 - 2020
2011 - Pepe Productions and the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum released their documentary “Search for the Jefferson Davis: Trader, Slaver, and Raider.” The full-length video production is the story of a Baltimore-built brig that eventually became an infamous Confederate privateer early in the Civil War (1861-1865). The documentary featured underwater archaeologists with the Lighthouse Maritime Archaeology Project (St. Augustine, Florida) using their Klein 3900 side scan sonar.
SUPSALV Shallow Water Intermediate Search System (SWISS), Klein System 3000 is used to locate An Air Force Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD) 1n 1000 feet of water near Fort Walton Beach, Florida
-L-3 Klein Associates introduced the HydroChart 5000 hydrology system.
-The Boston Sea Rovers presented Martin Klein, founder of Klein Associates, Inc., with their highest honor, the Walter Feinberg Memorial Diver of the Year Award, with the inscription: “ENGINEER-INVENTER-EXPLORER-THE GODFATHER OF SIDE SCAN SONAR FOR DEVELOPING THE TECHNOLOGY THAT UNLOCKED THE SECRETS OF THE DEEP”
-A group of veteran shipwreck divers, led by New Jersey attorney Joe Mazraani, used a Klein side scan sonar and they found the sunken U-550 German submarine; Garry Kozak (GK Consulting) was contracted for the sonar operation. The World War II (1939-1945) submarine sank off Nantucket, Massachusetts in mid-April 1944, a victim of American naval warfare.
-L-3 Klein Associates introduced the HYDROSCAN®, a side scan sonar for shallow water and rapid-deployment applications. The company also introduced the UUV-3500 High Resolution Side Scan Sonar for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).
-Kraken Sonar Systems of St. John's, NL introduces the AquaPix® Ultra-High Resolution Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Sonar.
-Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences uses independently developed synthetic aperture side scan sonar to survey the “Zheng He” shipwreck remains.
-The Royal Canadian Navy and the United States Coast Guard used side scan sonar on Operation Caribbe to search for sunken objects associated with counter narcotics trafficking in the Caribbean Basin.
-Sgt Ken Purcell and Mike Bean, Boone County Water Rescue (BCWR) report excellent results pointing a Marine Sonic HDS dual frequency 900/1800 Khz side scan sonar to a vertical position to map along piers.
-A Klein 4900 Side Scan Sonar was used to map the bottom of the St. Mary's River Oyster Sanctuary.
-The SeaFox mine neutralization system delivered by ATLAS North America with an L-3 Klein 5000 V2 Side Scan Sonar proved its effectiveness in performing unmanned mine countermeasure mission.
2012 - OceanServer Technology, USA, receives a contract from Florida Keys Community College (FKCC) for an Iver2 AUV equipped with an L-3 Klein 3500 Side-scan Sonar.
-L-3 Klein Associates introduces the Klein 7180 improved Long-Range Sonar (LRSSS) designed by Lloyd Huff and Peter Runciman. The system was made for NOAA Fisheries for fish-habitat research. The system provides calibrated backscatter across the entire survey area. This is accomplished with an innovative “cascade calibration” that uses overlapping swaths of data to transfer the calibrated backscatter from a simple downward-looking sonar (altimeter) to the other acoustic subsystems covering the nadir (under the towfish) and the outlying side-scan regions.
-Kraken Sonar Systems Inc. was created as a spin-out from Marport Deep Sea Technologies Inc. comprising only 8 employees, all with the goal of commercializing Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS).
2013 - L-3 Klein Associates went into production with its S5900 Side Scan Sonar with “advanced multi-function sonar platform that included high resolution multi-beam side scan sonar, swath bathymetry sonar, swath bathymetry sonar, gap filler sonar and integrated tow body sensor and subsystems.”
-Klein Side Scan Sonar was selected for one of the iconic objects selected for the MIT150 Exhibition at the MIT Museum commemorating the 150th anniversary of the founding of MIT
-Kraken acquired the intellectual property rights from Marport Deep Sea Technology Inc. for their Synthetic Aperture Sonar technology.
-Kraken completed successful trials with the U.S. Navy's Naval Undersea Warfare Center.
-Garmin introduces its “SideVü” sonar.
-Imagenex introduces its new Model 878 Side Scan Sonar running two simultaneous sonars on each side at different sound wavelengths.
Northrup Grumman announces a contract to support the U.S. Navy's integration of the AQS-24 Side Look Sonar system into an unmanned surface vehicle (ASV).
-Maine game wardens use an unmanned remote operated vehicle with side scan sonar to locate the remains of three snowmobilers in frozen Rangely Lake.
-MacDonald, Dettwiler and Asssociates, Ltd. awards a contract to International Submarine Imaging to deliver two commercial off-the-shelf high speed Aurora Towfish in support of the Royal Canadian ships. The towfish will use the L3 Klein side scan sonar.
2014 - Martin Klein (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Class of 1962) donated his collection of Klein side scan sonar-related papers and images to the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Parks Canada used a Klein 3000 side scan sonar and the team found the HMS Erebus, one of Captain John Franklin's 1845 Northwest Passage expedition vessels. The historic shipwreck lies in the eastern stretches of the Queen Maud Gulf in the Arctic Ocean, Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper show the sonar record at a press conference.
-Raymarine introduces their CHIRP SideVision™ Sonar
-ECA Group of France begins development of its own range of synthetic aperture sonars.
-Kraken introductes the next member of the AquaPix® family, the Miiature Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Sonar (MINISAS).
-Atlas North America LLC a wholly owned subsidiary of ATLAS ELEKTRONIK GmbH of Germany aquires the business of Marine Sonic Technology of Yorktown, Virginia.
2015 - Captain Jitka Hanáková and her team from Shipwreck Explorers LLC discovered the Alice E. Wilds off of Milwaukee using a Klein 3000 Side Scan Sonar.
-Edgetech introduces the 2205, a tri-frequency side scan sonar system.
2016 - January 4, 2016: Mitcham Industries, headquartered in Huntsville, Texas, announced it acquired L-3 Communications Klein Associates, Inc. and renamed the company—Klein Marine Systems.
-A Lake Champlain Maritime Museum project deployed a Klein 4900 Side Scan Sonar system from the R/V David Folger in a shipwreck survey off Burlington, Vermont (Lake Champlain). Dr. Tom Manley (Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont) assisted in the remote sensing survey. The team used the sonar to image the 63 ft. long Burlington Horse Ferry shipwreck. Jim Kennard and Scott Hill originally found the unusual watercraft during a 1983 side scan sonar project. Several horse-powered ferry vessels were in use on the waterway from 1820-1850. Today the sunken vessel is part of a Vermont shipwreck preserve system for visiting scuba divers. Imagery from the 2016 project will help submerged cultural resource specialists in their management planning for this underwater heritage site.
-Parks Canada procured an Iver3 AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) equipped with a variety of survey equipment including a Klein UUV 3500 SSS for use in future underwater searches of the 1845 Franklin expedition's HMS Erebus and HMS Terror shipwreck site areas in the Arctic waters of Canada.
-The Hawaii Mapping Research Group develops the IM30, 30 kHz deep-towed bathymetic side scan sonar.
2017 - Klein Marine Systems was instrumental in a successful survey of World War II-era “Upkeep” and “Highball” bombs resting in a loch in western Scotland. Sir Barnes Wallis, designer of the Wellington bomber and R100 airship, developed the ordnance as tests for his “bouncing” bombs. That weapon was deployed from British aircraft and the unique weapons destroyed the Rhur dams in Germany. The ordnance was modified and also used as weaponry against enemy ships. A Klein System 4900 was used in the survey and recovery project that included an Aspect Surveys vessel with support from Unique Systems-GSE Rentals.
-Kraken changed its namer from Kraken Sonar Systems Inc. to Kraken Robotics Inc.
2018 - January 24, 2018: 50th anniversary of Klein Marine Systems (ex Klein Associates)
-Martin Klein receives the Oceanology International 2018 Lifetime Achievement award in London.
-Martin Klein receives the 2018 Technical Achievement Award by the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society.
2019 - Klein Marine Systems introduces new MA-X View 600 Side Scan Sonar with Klein Blue Technology. The system delivers unprecedented focused 600 kHz imagery at an optimum range of 50 meters per side and unique coverage of the nadir zone (gap) to offer 40% less survey time at sea.
-The “Clotilda”, the last known slave ship to arrive in the United States is found along the Mobile River by SEARCH Inc. using an Edgetech Side Scan Sonar.
-D/V Tenacious locates the West Point a freighter sunk by U-53 in 1916. She was the last of the missing U-53 wrecks and we located her remains in November of 2020 using our Klein 3,000 System.
-Atlantic Wreck Salvage (AWS), owner and operator of D/V Tenacious, announced today the discovery of a submarine off the Delmarva Peninsula. The vessel has yet to be dived and visually identified, but based on side scan sonar data, the location, and the historical record, the team firmly believes it to be the wreckage of the R-8 (S.S. 85), an American submarine dispatched by experimental aerial bomb testing in 1936. The discovery is historically important because R-8 is one of few American submarines resting in diveable East Coast waters that had yet to be located.
