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2020-03-01

Northrop Grumman to Deliver Sustainable Minehunting System

Northrop Grumman Corporation has recently started to manufacture components of the AQS-24B towed minehunting system at Australia’s Marand Precision Engineering’s Moorabbin, Victoria facility.

The AQS-24 minehunting system includes an operational High Speed Synthetic Aperture Sonar (HSSAS) and an optical laser line scan sensor. The system performs high resolution detection, localisation, classification and identification of mine-like objects from helicopter and unmanned surface vessel platforms at speeds up to 18 knots. Thirty one systems are currently deployed worldwide.

“Northrop Grumman is committed to providing our customers worldwide with a sustainable and affordable minehunting system,” said Alan Lytle, vice president, undersea systems, Northrop Grumman. “Our partnership with Australian industry enables us to source key components from local manufacturers. This approach provides Australian industry with the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with our customers to transition much of the build and support of the system to them. This is our approach for the AQS-24 in Australia and worldwide.”

Marand designs and manufactures complex and innovative equipment and products for the aerospace, defence, automotive, rail and renewable energy industries. The towed vehicle shell assemblies and sonar array housings being manufactured in Australia for the AQS-24B will benefit from Marand’s extensive experience on other successful programmes such as the F-35. Assemblies will be delivered this summer to complete existing spares contracts Northrop Grumman has to support fielded and operational AQS-24 systems.

“We are thrilled to be selected by Northrop Grumman as their partner for the AQS-24B programme,” said Steve Mellor, general manager of Marand Defence Partnerships. “Having received our very first order from Northrop Grumman was an important step towards a long term relationship.”

Northrop Grumman has also expanded its current partnership with Sydney-based Electrotech Australia Pty Ltd, who currently performs post-delivery support of Northrop Grumman navigation and radar systems operating in Australia, to include future sustainment of the AQS-24B mine hunting sensor systems. Electrotech is the one of industry service leaders for marine electronics and satellite communications equipment in Australia.

“The partnership with Northrop Grumman has been an excellent one for over 20 years,” said Stephen Renkert, CEO of Electrotech. “We welcome the opportunity to add the highly successful AQS-24 to our portfolio.”

Northrop Grumman has three decades of in-fleet airborne minehunting countermeasure experience with 27 systems fielded. The company was the first to field electro-optic mine identification and developed the first long-range synthetic aperture sonar for mine warfare, the first mine warfare unmanned surface vessel (jointly with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center) and mine warfare unmanned underwater vehicles.

The AQS-24B has significantly improved image resolution and real-time sonar processing.

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