A sonobuoy loaded on to an aircraft. Photo US Navy

3 April 2014 naval-technology.com

ERAPSCO/Sonobuoy, a joint venture between electronics manufacturing firm Sparton and Ultra Electronics (ULE) subsidiary USSI, has awarded subcontracts worth $13.3m to its parent companies.

Under the $5.6m and $5.2m deals awarded to Sparton Electronics Florida and USSI respectively, the companies will manufacture and supply passive and active sonobuoys to ERAPSCO.

The subcontracts will support the multiple international agreements that the joint venture has for proposed exercises with the US Navy, as well as independent training and exercises, which have been approved under export regulations.

Designed to support the US Navy's anti-submarine forces, the sonobuoys can detect acoustic emissions or reflections from potentially hostile submarines and transmit these signals to US Navy airborne anti-submarine warfare forces.

As part of the deal, the sonobuoys will be manufactured at Sparton's De Leon Springs facility in Florida and USSI's Columbia City base in Indiana.

With production expected to be completed by June 2014, the passive and active sonobuoys will be used for detection, classification, and localisation of opponent submarines during peacetime and combat operations.

"Sonobuoys can deploy an acoustical signal source and receive underwater signals of interest."

They can also be used to evaluate environmental conditions in order to help deploy best search tactics, and for communication with friendly submarines.

In addition, they can send an acoustical signal source and receive underwater signals of interest that are sent to monitoring units for analysis.

Passive sonobuoys are used in the initial detection of submarines and the localisation of targets, while the active ones can identify targets quickly and accurately in extreme environmental conditions against a very quiet submarine, or one in an attack mode.

Certain specialised sonobuoys are capable of identifying electric fields and magnetic anomalies, as well as the light emitted by microscopic organisms disturbed by the passage of a submarine.

12/05/2013 Defence IQ Press

Morgan Advanced Materials, Ricardo and Ultra Electronics have formed an exclusive partnership to bid for the continued support and upgrade of the UK Ministry of Defence’s Mastiff, Ridgback and Wolfhound fleet of Protected Patrol Vehicles.

Morgan Advanced Materials’ Composites and Defence Systems business (formerly NP Aerospace) is the acting as the prime contractor in the contract. It has designed, developed and integrated UK-specific, specialised armour protection and electronic systems into the entire Mastiff family of vehicles from base platforms purchased from the US. Morgan also implemented and operated the spares support processes, including configuration management, stocking and supply chain management, which kept the fleets running during combat operations.

Ricardo is an automotive engineering specialist and was responsible for the initial design, development and engineering of the Foxhound vehicles, manufacturing all 376 units ordered to date. Ricardo was prime contractor on the Vixen and RWMIK+ upgrade programmes and has also undertaken a project for the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL) to identify improvements to the fuel efficiency of Mastiff vehicles.

“Ricardo is extremely pleased to be joining forces with Morgan and Ultra in what represents a highly effective and all-British partnership, drawing together world-class engineering capabilities and extensive experience in military vehicle design, development, manufacture and overhaul,” said Ricardo UK managing director Martin Fausset.

Ultra Electronics has pioneered vehicle information and power systems and has worked on behalf of customers including the MoD, US Department of Defense and other Tier 1 suppliers into the defence sector. Ultra is currently under contract to provide multiple electronic systems for the Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme and Scout SV development. It is the only Tier 2 supplier involved in all aspects of Generic Vehicle Systems Architecture (GVSA), Generic Soldier Architecture (GSA) and Generic Base Architecture (GBA).

The MoD will shortly award contracts for Post Design Service, Coherence and future upgrade work. Morgan will lead the group and is bidding as prime contractor.