Raytheon awarded contract to upgrade AN/AQS-20 mine-hunting sonar for US Navy.

Counter-mine experts at the Raytheon Company will overhaul, repair, and upgrade the U.S. Navy AN/AQS-20 towed mine-hunting sonar under terms of a $US 20 million order, the company announced on Friday, May 17, 2019.

The AN/AQS-20 advanced mine-hunting sonar has four separate sonars to detect and classify mine-like objects from the sea floor to the near-surface (Picture Source: Raytheon)

Officials of the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division in Panama City, Fla., are asking the Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems segment in Keyport, Wash., to provide technology upgrades and mitigate obsolescence issues in the AN/AQS-20 for the Navy's program executive office for unmanned and small combatants.

The AN/AQS-20A is a mine hunting and identification system with acoustic and identification sensors housed in an underwater towed body. The acoustic sensors detect, classify, and pinpoint bottom, close-tethered, and volume enemy mines in one pass.

Raytheon will provide AN/AQS-20 upgrades; repair; overhauls and other scheduled maintenance; hardware and software maintenance; obsolescence tracking and resolution; technology improvements; reliability and maintainability improvements; carry out change notices and engineering change proposals; test support; spare and repair parts; and hardware upgrades to improve system performance, sustainability, and reliability.

The AN/AQS-20A is an integrated acoustic and electro-optical sensor system with a hydrodynamically stable towed body sensor that operates from on Navy MH-53E and MH-60S helicopters, as well as from the AN/WLD-1 remotely operated underwater vehicle. The system can find and neutralize sea mines placed as deeply as 450 feet deep.