WASHINGTON, 14 Sept. 2006. U.S. Navy officials are moving ahead with their project to improve sonar signal processing aboard their fleet of nuclear submarines with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software.

Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington awarded a $10.5 million contract modification Dec. 13 to General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems in Fairfax, Va., for Multi-Purpose Processors (MPP) and Total Ship Monitoring System (TSMS) kits for the Acoustic Rapid COTS Insertion (A-RCI) program.

The ARC-I program has evolved from VME-based computer equipment to commercial blade servers since the program was introduced in the 1990s.

General Dynamics will produce seven MPP systems and nine TSMS systems to upgrade Los Angeles-, Seawolf, and Virginia-class attack submarines, as well as Ohio-class ballistic missile and cruise missile submarines.

The MPP processes acoustic signals from submarine towed sonar arrays, hull sonar arrays, sphere sonar arrays, and the TSMS. The TSMS, meanwhile, helps test onboard data-acquisition hardware and processing algorithms for acoustic signature monitoring use.

Work on the contract will be in Fairfax, Va., and will be finished by July 2008.