Leidos to install AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 open-systems undersea warfare system aboard U.S. Navy surface warships
WASHINGTON – Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) experts at Leidos Inc. in Reston, Va., will install the U.S. Navy AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 surface ship undersea warfare systems aboard Navy combat vessels under terms of an $8.1 million order.
Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington awarded a contract modification to Leidos last month to install the AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 undersea combat system from the Lockheed Martin Corp. Rotary and Mission Systems segment in Manassas, Va.
The AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 for surface warships is designed to search for, detect, classify, localize, and track underwater contacts; and to attack or avoid enemy submarines, floating, tethered, or bottom-attached mines, and torpedoes.
The AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 uses active and passive sonar to enable Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class cruisers to detect, locate, track, and attack hostile submarines, mines, and torpedoes.
The counter-mine and anti-torpedo system provides multi-sensor track correlation and target track management control, and forwards data to the ship’s weapons and decision-support systems. The AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 works together with the ship's active and passive hull sonar, multi-function towed array, sonobuoy processing, torpedo alerts, fire-control system, sensor performance predictions, embedded operator, and team training systems.
The AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 has an open-systems architecture to accommodate system upgrades, and makes the most of data accessibility and system modules, Lockheed Martin officials say. Its software application programs are isolated from hardware with open middleware to render applications processor-independent.
The system uses POSIX-compliant system calls and Motif and X-compliant display service calls. Symmetric multi-processors (SMPs) using Linux-based processing handle signal, data, display, and interface processing.
Virtual Network Computing (VNC) enables rapid re-allocation of operator console displays to suit the tactical situation, Lockheed Martin officials say.
Recent and planned upgrades to the AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 include improved automated torpedo detection, sonar performance prediction, advanced active sonar processing, re-designed active displays to reduce operator loading, and integrated training and logistics.
The AN/SQQ-89 is integrated with the Aegis combat system, vertical launch anti-submarine rocket (ASROC) system. A variant of the AN/SQQ-89A(V)15 is integrated with late-version Aegis combat systems being installed onboard new Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. A back-fit program is in place to retrofit existing DDG-51 class ships and Ticonderoga-class cruisers.
On this contract modification Leidos will do the work in Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Manassas, Va.; Everett, Wash.; Yokosuka, Japan; San Diego; Bath, Maine; Mayport, Fla.; Pascagoula, Miss.; and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and should be finished by September 2024.
For more information contact Leidos Inc. online at www.leidos.com, or Naval Sea Systems Command at www.navsea.navy.mil.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
