USA: Lockheed Martin Wins COTS A-RCI Production Contract

Lockheed Martin Corp., Mission Systems and Sensors, based in Manassas, Va., has been awarded a $29.3 million contract modification for fiscal 2013 Acoustic Rapid Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Insertion (A-RCI) production.

The contract provides funding for the development and production of the A-RCI and common acoustics processing for Technology Insertion 12 through Technology Insertion 14 for the U.S. Navy submarine fleet.

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 COTS based hardware and software. It has proven significant improvements in the US submarines’ ability to detect other submarines. Based on providing orders of magnitude improvements in processing, the system cuts development costs and needed time between system upgrades through a build-test-build process. This approach that entails more rapid development process has become the standard for future combat systems and other submarine electronics.

ARCI is the baseline sonar system for the VIRGINIA Class SSN and is designed to be back-fitted to existing submarines as a four-phase program.

Work will be performed in Manassas, Va. (60 percent), and Clearwater, Fla. (40 percent), and is expected to be completed by December 2013.

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Press Release, June 10, 2013; Image: Navy