ERAPSCO, a joint venture between Sparton and Ultra Electronics’ (ULE) subsidiary USSI, has been awarded a contract to supply sonobuoys to the US Navy.
The production subcontracts, worth $90.5m and $75.5m, will be awarded by ERAPSCO to Sparton DeLeon Springs and Ultra Electronics USSI, respectively.
Sparton president and chief executive officer Cary Wood said: "We are firmly committed to development of innovative technology and to providing the US Navy with the highest quality products that help further its mission."
The contract includes the base-year award of a five-year indefinite-delivery / indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract, with a maximum value of $810m.
Scheduled to be completed by June 2020, work will be carried out at Sparton’s DeLeon Springs facility in Florida, US, as well as Ultra’s Columbia City facility in Indiana, US.
Earlier this year, ERAPSCO awarded subcontracts worth $13.3m to its parent companies to manufacture and supply passive and active sonobuoys.
Designed to support the US Navy’s anti-submarine forces, sonobuoys can detect acoustic emissions or reflections from potentially hostile submarines and transmit these signals to US Navy airborne anti-submarine warfare forces.
Image: A sonobuoy loaded on to an aircraft. Photo: courtesy of the US Navy, by photographer’s mate 1st class John Collins.
