Navy orders shipboard torpedo defense systems

Argon ST Inc. in Smithfield, Pa., are building nine additional shipboard electronics systems for the U.S. Navy that use torpedo-spoofing decoys to lure enemy torpedoes away from U.S. and allied surface ships. Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington announced a $10.2 million order to Argon ST, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Boeing Co., to provide nine AN/SLQ-25A/C countermeasure decoy systems. The AN/SLQ-25A/C is a digitally controlled modular electro-acoustic soft kill countermeasure decoy system that employs an underwater towed body acoustic projector deployed from the ship's stern on a fiber-optic tow cable to defend ships against wake-homing, acoustic homing, and wire-guided enemy torpedoes. The new order is to provide improved naval surface ship defense against modern advanced torpedoes in support of the Navy's Undersea Defensive Warfare Programs.