Officials of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center division in Newport, R.I., are asking Ultra Electronics to provide TR-364 high-frequency sail array projectors for Navy Virginia-class fast attack submarines and to support Submarine Acoustics Systems.
The array projector is part of a submarine's active sonar system, which consists of the projector transducers, and receiver arrays. The projector is an underwater speaker, which includes a signal generator, power amplifier, and electro-acoustic transducer array. The projector creates the active sonar "ping" sound that reflects off of potentially hostile submarines and other undersea targets.
A submarine's "sail" is the part of a submarine that projects up from the vessel's tubular-shaped structure, and contains periscopes, sensor masts, sonar equipment, and places for crew members outside the submarine when the vessel is operating on the surface.
Related: Harris Acoustic to provide submarine sonar components
The contract announced this week is a follow-on to a $13.1 million contract awarded in 2005 to Harris Acoustic Products Corp. in East Walpole, Mass., which ordered as many as 20 sonar projectors and 164 receive array modules.
Ultra Electronics acquired Harris Acoustic Products in 2008 for $7 million in cash, and integrated assets of that company into the Ultra Electronics Ocean Systems in Braintree, Mass. Harris Acoustic Products specialized in submarine acoustic transducers and arrays.
On this week's contract, Ultra Electronics will build two TR-364 sail array projectors and as many as 10 more submarine sonar projectors over the next year. Next year Ultra will build as many as five additional sonar projectors annually over the following four years. The company will build as many as 50 projectors in total over the duration of the contract.
Ultra Electronics will the work on this contract in Braintree, Mass., and should be finished by May 2022. For more information contact Ultra Electronics Ocean Systems online at www.ultra-os.com, or the Naval Undersea Warfare Center-Newport at www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Warfare-Centers/NUWC-Newport.
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