In February, 2008, DTA-4000 deep-tow acoustic system successfully accomplished the task of examining the international submarine cable route in the northern part of South China Sea. It was the first time for the system to be put into the practical use. The system worked stably for 145 hours undersea, checked the cable for 640 km and obtained plenty of reliable data.

The deep-tow acoustic system was researched and developed by the joint efforts of IACAS, Teledyne RD Technologies (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and 702 Institute of CSIC. Based on the research results of HRBSSS, the new system innovatively put forward a new signal processing method, which could get the high-resolution benthonic terrain image. The system overcame many key research problems, such as the design of deep withstanding-voltage sonar array, of deep-sea high-stability tow platform and of high-performance and low-power mini sonar electric system. Moreover, it could run stably below 4000 meters undersea.

DTA-4000 deep-tow acoustic system could realize the definite goal search and facilitate the large devices to work. The system has a promising future in marine resources exploration and marine engineering.