Submarine sonar engineers at the Lockheed Martin Corp. Mission Systems and Sensors (MS2) segment in Manassas, Va., will build hardware for the Acoustics-Rapid COTS Insertion (A-RCI) system improvement and integration program for the guided missile submarines USS Ohio (SSGN 726) and USS Georgia (SSGN 729), as well as the fast-attack submarine USS California (SSN 781) under terms of a $11.3 million U.S. Navy contract modification announced Friday.
A-RCI is a sonar system that integrates and improves towed array, hull array, sphere array, and other ship sensor processing, through rapid insertion of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)-based hardware and software. The Navy is buying about 12 A-RCI systems per year from Lockheed Martin MS2 over the next four years. Awarding the contract were officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington.
The USS Ohio was the first submarine of the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine class. This boat, as well as its sister USS Georgia are being converted to carry a variety of conventionally armed guided missiles for anti-ship and land attack use. The new guided missile payloads aboard the Ohio and Georgia will replace the nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles for which the two submarines were originally designed.
