U.S. Navy receives first delivery of upgraded AQS-24B mine hunting sonar
NewsSeptember 21, 2016
ANNAPOLIS, Md. U.S. Navy officials received Northrop Grumman's delivery of the first lot of the AQS-24B mine hunting sonar upgrade kits. The delivery falls under the U.S. Navy's PMS-495 production contract to upgrade 27 AQS-24A mine hunting systems to the AQS-24B.
Northrop Grumman is expected to deliver production lot two in the fall of this year and production lot three in 2017. Officials say the end users will be the HM-12, -14, and -15 Mine Countermeasures Squadrons.
Officials explain that the synthetic aperture sonar enables the device to scan the ocean floor at a higher resolution of the earlier system while operating at a speed of 18 knots. The MH-53E helicopters will operate with the AQS-24B and with the Mine Hunting Unmanned Surface Vessels (MHU) currently deployed in the Arabian Gulf.
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