Lockheed UK wins sonar contract

News

Lockheed Martin UK has been awarded a seven-year contract to provide combat system upgrades to the sonar systems aboard four Royal Navy Vanguard Class ballistic missile submarines. More than 70 per cent of the work will be performed in the United Kingdom.

The Vanguard Class submarine’s 2054 sonar suite is facing near-term obsolescence. Lockheed Martin will use the Acoustic Rapid Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Insertion (ARCI) business model, proven in US Navy service, to provide the Royal Navy submarine force with an open-architecture system that will negate obsolescence issues.

Lockheed said the move to an open architecture would make it easier for the Royal Navy to continuously refresh its Sonar 2054 suites as new technologies become available.

Much of the Sonar 2054 work will be performed at existing Lockheed Martin UK facilities, including an integration centre in Havant and the Swift Laboratory, a new demonstration and experimentation centre in Farnborough that opened in June 2006.

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