Marport awarded sonar contract by Selex Galileo

Marport Deep Sea Technologies, a leading developer of sonar technology for commercial and military applications, announced today that its subsidiary, Marport C-Tech, has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract to manufacture helicopter dipping sonar modules for international defence contractor Selex Galileo. The work will be carried out at Marport C-Tech facilities in Cornwall, Ontario.

Selex Galileo, a Finmeccanica company, is a major defense electronics company that specializes in airborne missions systems for surveillance, tracking, and targeting applications. It’s also the design authority and prime contractor of the OTS-90, the NATO Frigate Helicopter (NFH) sonic system selected to equip the NFH-90 Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) helicopter fleets of the Italian Navy and the Royal Netherlands Navy.

"We are proud to be a supplier to Selex Galileo and consider this contract to be an important win for Marport. Airborne ASW systems are likely to be the first line of defense against any major submarine threat over the next decade. This contract builds upon Marport’s many years of experience in supplying modules for helicopter dipping sonars,”said Karl Kenny, President & CEO of Marport. 

The OTS-90 is an advanced, integrated sonic system designed to maximize the probability for early detection and classification of underwater threats. The system’s dipping sonar is derived from the Helicopter Long Range Active Sonar (HELRAS) developed by L-3 Ocean Systems and some units are manufactured under license for the NFH-90 program. The low frequency system uses proprietary transducer and beam-forming technology to allow multiple boundary interactions and reduced reverberation contamination of the received signals. In addition to long range surveillance and search capability, it is also well suited to redetection, target localization and weapon delivery against deep and shallow water targets.

Marport is also a sub-contractor to L-3 Ocean Systems and manufactures a variety of HELRAS system modules for the Canadian Navy’s CH-148 Maritime Helicopter program.

According to market analyst Forecast International, the market for airborne ASW sensors is valued at $6.1 billion over the next 10 years. This growth reflects the fact that aviation assets remain the most mobile, flexible and cost-effective ASW systems available to the world's navies.