Submarine Sonar Systems

Torpedo countermeasures have been a vital but little-heralded component of a surface combatant’s defensive systems, which will only become more important as the US Navy “pivots” to Asia, increasingly exposed to Chinese, North Korean, and other modern, quiet diesel submarines. The Navy will continue to install Cold War-origin AN/SLQ-25A/C NIXIE systems aboard all its new surface combatants until follow-on systems become available. Original US Navy requirements called for a total of 240 SLQ-25A systems, and perhaps 300 systems for all navies had been produced by 2005. Funding began increasing in the May 2009, FY10 budget, and continued to grow.