Multimission and multispectral sonar

A sonar system for conducting a survey, the sonar system comprising:

• a transceiver for connection to a plurality of projectors in a projector array and a plurality of hydrophones in a hydrophone array where the arrays are not arranged in plural rows and plural columns;
• a transceiver transmitter and the projector array configured to project an elongated transmit beam that simultaneously ensonifies an entire swath;
• a transceiver receiver and the hydrophone array configured to form elongated receive beams;
• and,
• wherein operation of the sonar system includes a) consecutive transmissions that include a first transmission that forms a first transmit beam and a second transmission that forms a second transmit beam, b) the first transmit beam conveys at least a first signal in a first frequency band and the second transmit beam conveys at least a second signal in a second frequency band that does not overlap with the first frequency band, c) each of the first and second transmit beams intersected by multiple receive beams, and d) the receive beams transport echo signals from scattering centers ensonified by the transmit beams.