Navy orders seven TB-37 surface ship sonar systems from Lockheed Martin to hunt submarines
WASHINGTON, 27 May 2015. U.S. Navy anti-submarine warfare (ASW) experts are ordering towed-array surface ship sonar systems to enable warships to hunt and attack quiet enemy submarines lurking at a variety of ocean depths.
Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington announced a $27.3 million contract modification on Friday to the Lockheed Martin Corp. Mission Systems and Training segment in Liverpool, N.Y., to build seven TB-37 Multi-Function Towed Array (MFTA) sonar systems.
The TB-37, part of the AN/SQQ-89(V) Undersea Warfare/Anti-Submarine Warfare Combat System, is a next-generation passive and active sonar receiver configured as a long 3-inch-diameter array that can be towed behind surface ships. It is for Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, Ticonderoga-class cruisers, the Littoral Combat Ship, and Zumwalt-class land-attack destroyer.
The TB-37 helps surface warships detect, pinpoint, and attack enemy submarines. To build it, Lockheed Martin is collaborating with L3 Chesapeake Science Corp. in Millersville, Md.
Related: Lockheed Martin to provide Navy with advanced towed-array sonar for surface warships
The TB-37 MFTA is an active and passive sonar. It can remain silent and simply listen for the sounds of enemy submarines, or it can ping active to bounce sound off the hulls of submarines in the area.
The order calls for Lockheed Martin to provide TB-37 sonar production units, tow cables, electro-optical slip rings, drogues and shipping products, and engineering services.
The TB-37 can operate at a variety of depths to enable surface warships to detect and localize enemy submarines attempting to hide in different ocean layers of varying temperatures and salinity. Ocean layers sometimes can bend sound signals and deceive sonar.
The TB-37 MFTA is the next generation passive and active sonar receiver. It affords several enhancements to the AN/SQR-19 Tactical Towed Array System allowing greater coverage, increased capability and reliability, and reduced obsolescence, Navy officials say.
The TB-37 MFTA significantly contributes to the capability of surface ships to detect, localize, and prosecute undersea threats and is a critical sensor to a combat systems suite.
This contract will buy TB-37 sonars for the U.S. Navy, as well as for the government of Japan under the Foreign Military Sales program. Lockheed Martin will do the work in Syracuse, N.Y.; Millersville, Md.; and Marion, Mass., and should be finished by February 2017.
For more information contact Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training online at www.lockheedmartin.com/us/mst, or Naval Sea Systems Command at www.navsea.navy.mil.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
