Defense industry notes

Sea Power, Aug 2001

AlL Systems has been awarded a $38.5 million Naval Air Systems Command contract for the fabrication of 78 Universal Exciter Pods for Navy and Marine Corps EA-6113 Prowler electronic attack aircraft. Deliveries are expected to be completed by August 2003.

Northrop Grumman has delivered the last of 36 new-production Group II versions of the E-2C Hawkeye radar warning aircraft for the U.S. Navy-six weeks ahead of schedule, company officials said. The first production Hawkeye 2000 version is scheduled for delivery in October 2001. Northrop Grumman also has been awarded a contract to upgrade a former U.S. Navy E-2C to the Hawkeye 2000 configuration for the Egypt!an Air Force, which now operates five E-2Cs (all of which will be upgraded to the Hawkeye 2000 export configuration).

Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems-Undersea Systems has delivered its 100th SQQ-89 undersea warfare system to the U.S. Navy. The SQQ-89-the first of which was delivered 15 years agois installed on Navy surface combatants and integrates a variety of sensors-e.g., a hull-mounted sonar, a sonobuoy processing system, and a weapons launch system-with the Aegis combat system to counter submarines and other undersea threats. The 100th unit will be installed on the Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guidedmissile destroyer Mason, which was recently launched in Bath, Maine.

The Ocean Sciences Division of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has been awarded a $6 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the first phase of the Robust Sonar Program. DARPA officials say the agency hopes to develop submarine towedarray sonar systems optimized for the littoral environment, as well as "a new generation of advanced array signalprocessing capabilities for [the] detection and tracking of submarines."

Textron Systems has been awarded a $130 million Air Force contract for 300 CBU-105 sensor-fuzed weapons for the Air Force and 900 BLU-108 submunitions for the Navy's AGM154B Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW). Each AGM-154B carries six BLU-108s-a total of 24 warheads in each JSOW.

Keystone Shipping has signed a $240 million agreement with the new Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyardlocated at the former U.S. Navy shipyard in Philadelphia-to build four new product tankers. Each tanker will displace approximately 46,000 deadweight tons and carry approximately 330,000 barrels of liquid products.