Abstract: A system for three dimensional mapping of a submarine surface includes (a) a light source for projecting a beam of collimated light that is reflective from the submarine surface including a laser of confined cross-sectional area, (b) a scanning unit to intercept the beam and project it in a first direction onto a selected area of the surface as a raster of pixels each at controlled X and Y coordinates of said surface and produce a reflection of the raster in a second direction, (c) a scanner processor to control the X and Y coordinates, (d) a compound lens capable of intercepting the raster reflection and focusing it as a scan image on a reception plane offset spatially from the scanning unit, (e) a position sensitive detector having a planosurface positioned substantially on the reception plane to sense the scan image and convert each pixel of the reflected raster into a pair of differential currents corresponding to the X and Y coordinates of the each pixel at said reception plane, (f) a signal processor to