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Thales Underwater Systems awarded a contract for 10 AQS22 ALFS Dipping Sonar Subsystems for the USN

09 February 2006

Thales Underwater Systems has been awarded a $17 million contract from Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) for the production of 10 AQS 22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar (ALFS) dipping sonar subsystems for the U.S. Navy's MH60R multi-mission helicopter.

Under the contract, Thales Underwater Systems will provide 10 Folding Light Acoustic System for Helicopters (FLASH) active dipping sonar subsystems, including the reeling machine, cable and wet end assemblies, to Raytheon, the ALFS program prime contractor, for final integration and test. This award comes after the successful completion of an LRIP contract awarded in November 2002, under which Raytheon and Thales worked together to deliver 4 ALFS systems to the U.S. Navy well ahead of schedule.

ALFS is the primary undersea warfare sensor for the U.S. Navy's MH60R, providing mission critical capabilities, including submarine detection, tracking, localization, classification, acoustic intercept, underwater communication and environmental data collection.

Thales Underwater Systems (TUS) is known world-wide for its expertise in designing and manufacturing sonar systems for ships, submarines, and aircraft. Amongst these, one of the most successful is the FLASH Active Dipping Sonar (ADS) system.

FLASH was first selected by the UK Royal Navy for their EH-101 Merlin Anti-Submarine Warfare helicopter, and a total of 44 FLASH systems were procured. This success was repeated when the US Navy selected FLASH for its AQS-22 ALFS program. Subsequently FLASH has been selected by France, Norway and Sweden for the NH-90 helicopter and supplied to the UAE on the Cougar helicopter.

With all these orders the FLASH acoustic system for helicopters has become a de-facto standard for navies around the world. "This solid and credible order book guarantees a long term commitment to the most technology-oriented navies for the next 20 years and more," said Jacques Rabain, CEO of Thales Undewater Systems. "Being the system of choice of the allied navies the FLASH acoustic system brings interoperability assurance in terms of operational use and supportability in the fleet."