ARINC Engineering Services Wins $10 Million Contract to Support Navy Sonar Anti-Mine Mission

June 6,2006

Annapolis, Maryland—ARINC Engineering Services, LLC, (AES) has been awarded a 5-year, $10 million contract to provide technical, engineering and logistics support for the U.S. Navy’s AN/AQS-20A Towed Sonar program.
 
The AN/AQS-20A Towed Sonar is a newly developed, technically advanced system to detect, localize, and classify many types of mines, including bottom, close-tethered, and volume types. It is designed to be deployed by the MH-60S helicopter and the Navy’s Remote Minehunting System. AES and a team of 3 subcontractors will support the AN/AQS-20A program.

The new contract means ARINC will continue many years of successful work supporting the Navy’s development, testing, and deployment of the Towed Sonar, which began in the year 2000 under previous Mine Warfare contracts.

“ARINC Engineering Services is delighted to win this award against strong competition,” stated Barry F. Schwoerer, AES Vice President, Advanced Aviation and Maritime Engineering. “We put together a winning team with unique and specialized capabilities to cover the whole range of technical, engineering and logistics support required for the AN/AQS-20A mission for the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City.”

The contract represents one of ARINC’s largest contract wins as a prime under the Navy SeaPort program. It provides for more than 33,000 hours of labor per year, distributed among three subcontractors including a small business. In preparation for the deployment of the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) in FY08, the Panama City AN/AQS-20A team has the responsibility of ensuring the towed body meets Developmental and Operational Test requirements and is supportable aboard the LCS or shore site maintenance facility. The Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City has overall Technical Direction Agency responsibility for the AN/AQS-20A Towed Sonar program.

The AN/AQS-20A mission is to detect, classify, and identify bottom, floating, and moored mines in both deep and shallow water. It accomplishes this through acoustic sensors installed on the Navy’s common towed body. These sensors including a Forward Looking Sonar (FLS), Side Looking Sonar (SLS), Volume Search Sonar (VSS), and Gap Filler Sonar (GFS). An Electro-Optic Identification (EOID) sensor is also used.

The AN/AQS-20A is developed in support of the Navy’s Organic Airborne Mine Countermeasures (OAMCM), but is also being adopted for use aboard various surface ships including the LCS, the Guided Missile Destroyer (DDG), the Landing Platform Deck (LPD), and Landing Platform Helicopter (LPH). The AN/AQS-20A can be used with either an MH-60S or MH-53E helicopter to support airborne mine countermeasure operations, or on the LCS and DDG in conjunction with the Remote Mine-Hunting System (RMS) in support of surface ship mine countermeasure operations.

ARINC Incorporated is the world leader in transportation communications and systems engineering. The company develops and operates communications and information processing systems and provides systems engineering and integration solutions to five key industries: airports, aviation, defense, government, and surface transportation. Founded to provide reliable and efficient radio communications for the airlines, ARINC is headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, and operates key regional offices in London and Singapore, with over 3,200 employees worldwide. ARINC is ISO 9001:2000 certified.

Release: 06-80

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