Advances in winch system for defence applications

Purpose: Winch systems are commonly used in many applications starting from fishing industries to highly advanced defence, space and nuclear sectors. This paper discusses advances in development of winch system for defence applications focusing on the towed array sonar winches for deployment and retrieval of towed sonar wet end from naval ships. Design/methodology/approach: In order to meet the requirements, the winch designer is required to bring innovations through latest technologies and thereby incorporate advancements in the Mechanical engineering field. Findings: Based on experience of the authors, the advancements from raw material to drive transmission system to health monitoring concepts are discussed along with the technology up gradation in winch systems. Practical implications: The functional requirements for defence applications are something uncommon compared to civilian applications.