May 12 2010
The US Navy has awarded a subcontract worth $28 million for manufacturing sonobuoys to Sparton Corporation as part of the ERAPSCO joint venture of this company. Manufacture of these sonobuoys will be done at the DeLeon Springs, facility of Sparton and is likely to be over by September 2011.
Schaumburg headquartered Sparton is presently the sole US-owned designer and producer of sonobuoys for the US Navy.
This subcontract comes on the heels of an earlier announcement by the company relating its subcontract to make Air Deployable Active Receiver (ADAR) type of sonobuoys to be used by the US Navy.
The Ultra Electronics Holdings’ subsidiary USSI and Sparton are the joint venture partners of ERAPSCO. As per the ERAPSCO subcontract, Sparton will manufacture 33,604 sonobuoys. AN/SSQ-36B AN/SSQ-53F and AN/SSQ-62E types of sonobuoys for supporting the Antisubmarine Forces of the US Navy are to be manufactured by the Sparton. Sonobuoys sense acoustic reflections or emissions from hostile submarines and send them to the airborne antisubmarine warfare forces of the US Navy.
The AN/SSQ-53F sonobuoy, a passive acoustic sensor is utilized for detecting, classifying and localizing of enemy submarines during combat and peacetime operations. The AN/SSQ-62E DICASS sonobuoy, an active acoustic sensor is utilized during the final localization and attack stage of submarine prosecutions. The AN/SSQ-36B is used to measure a water column’s temperature profile for predicting acoustic range and sonar propogation.
Sparton Corporation’s CEO and President Cary Wood informed that Sparton is committed to developing innovative technology and provide quality products to the US Navy that help in securing the borders.