United States News Archives

Ultra Maritime’s Landmark Investments Produce Industry-Leading Critical Capabilities for the U.S. Navy and its Allies

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COLUMBIA CITY, Indiana – Ultra Maritime continues to expand its market-leading, large-scale supply of essential expendables to the U.S. Navy and its allies in support of advancements of critical munitions requirements for the war stock inventory. With state-of-the-art sonobuoy technology, Ultra Maritime is not only pacing the evolving global threat environment but also reinforcing the industrial base.

Ultra Maritime has made landmark investments in new technologies, new factories and an expanded supply base. One of the new buoys now in full production is the SSQ-62G. This world-leading, U.S.-specification sonobuoy is widely exported to allied nations, with up to 20 countries currently procuring or expected to procure this buoy in the near future. Read about a recent award from the U.S. Navy here.

To meet the surging production capacity for the unprecedented quantity of sonobuoy awards, Ultra Maritime recognizes the essential role of supply chain resilience to deliver these critical products on schedule and at volume. The company’s comprehensive sourcing strategies, aggressive affordability initiatives and alignment with more than 150 trusted suppliers has created a competitive edge that supports national security and economic vitality. Ultra Maritime boasts a supply base that includes partners in 24 states across the U.S. with more than 70% being small businesses.

With increased production in its cutting-edge Columbia City factory and an expanded supply base, Ultra Maritime is proudly creating hundreds of jobs in Northeast Indiana and around the country.

Ultra Maritime Receives Delivery Order Under Fair Opportunities Procedures U.S. Navy for SSQ-62G Sonobuoys

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COLUMBIA CITY, Indiana – Ultra Maritime has been awarded a Firm Fixed Priced Delivery Order under Fair Opportunities procedures for the SSQ-62G production for the Navy in support of annual training, peacetime operations and testing expenditures, to maintain sufficient inventory to support the execution of major combat operations based on naval munitions requirements process.

“Ultra Maritime’s workforce is the backbone of our success, and we are proud to foster a strong community of dedicated and talented employees who are driving sonobuoy technology and ensuring availability, quality and cost alignment for our suppliers and customers,” said Gabe Kopin, Vice President and General Manager of the Airborne Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) line of business at Ultra Maritime. “We have developed a factory capable of meeting the demand for the most advanced detection capabilities that ensure the safety of our sailors across the globe during a time when threats are proliferating.”

Ultra Maritime has made significant investments towards creating the factory of the future with streamlined capability, configured specifically for sonobuoy production and delivery. With operations in the U.S., UK, Canada and Australia, Ultra Maritime provides advanced ASW solutions from the air, the surface and undersea, in support of international allies worldwide.

Ultra Maritime Injecting Autonomous Undersea Capabilities into Next-Generation Torpedo Countermeasure Solutions for Future Anti-Submarine Warfare Dominance

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BRAINTREE, Massachusetts – Ultra Maritime continues to advance its investment in the development of cutting-edge Next Generation Countermeasure systems — revolutionary autonomous undersea vehicles designed specifically as an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) solution.

These vehicles, both internally and externally launchable from submarines and unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs), are engineered for independent operation. Once deployed, they maneuver away from the host platform to deliver real-time tactical updates and enhanced maritime domain awareness through robust acoustic communications.

As adversary undersea threats continue to evolve in capability, countermeasure systems must adapt to keep pace with both current and emerging challenges. To effectively counter these threats, traditional approaches alone are no longer sufficient — countermeasures must advance in sophistication, autonomy and adaptability. There is now a powerful convergence of technologies: torpedo countermeasures and UUVs, themselves. This convergence represents the next phase of ASW, where countermeasure systems integrate autonomous mobility, intelligent sensing and defensive effectors to provide a resilient, layered defense against evolving torpedo threats.

Recently, Ultra Maritime proved its capability in developing a full-duplex acoustic communication node, enabling secure, two-way information exchange between manned and unmanned platforms across the maritime battlespace. This capability enhances coordination and dramatically improves platform survivability in contested and high-threat environments.

Ultra Maritime has delivered more than 30,000 expendable torpedo countermeasures across a diverse portfolio of designs, reinforcing its position as the global leader in torpedo defense solutions.

Ultra Maritime Receives Competitive Delivery Order Under Fair Opportunities Procedures U.S. Navy for SSQ-53H Sonobuoys

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COLUMBIA CITY, Indiana – Ultra Maritime has been awarded a Firm Fixed Priced Competitive Delivery Order under Fair Opportunities procedures for the SSQ-53H production for the Navy in support of annual training, peacetime operations and testing expenditures, to maintain sufficient inventory to support the execution of major combat operations based on naval munitions requirements process.

“Ultra Maritime takes great pride in playing a pivotal role in advancing anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and ensuring the safety of our sailors worldwide,” said Carlo Zaffanella, Ultra Maritime President & CEO. “We are dedicated to making great leaps in acoustic technology, providing the most advanced submarine detection capabilities during a time when threats are rapidly appearing around the globe.”

Ultra Maritime has made significant investments towards creating the factory of the future with streamlined capability and configured specifically for sonobuoy production and delivery. With operations in the U.S., UK, Canada and Australia, Ultra Maritime provides advanced ASW solutions in support of international allies across the globe. 

Ultra Maritime Leads the Future of Unmanned Anti-Submarine Warfare Solutions from the Air, Surface and Undersea

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The demand for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) has never been greater. Threat submarines proliferate and grow quieter. And international waters grow more contested.

Tackling the modern anti-submarine warfare problem requires many modalities of sensing and communication. Successful solutions must unite existing and next-generation capabilities while leveraging both manned and unmanned platforms rapidly and at scale. A distributed network across a hybrid fleet is essential to achieving maritime dominance while reducing the risk to expensive manned platforms, particularly in contested waters.  

As the leader in ASW innovation for global allied navies, Ultra Maritime recognizes the many challenges modern submarine threats pose and has invested in state-of-the-art technologies that make ASW possible across a hybrid fleet.

From the Air: Through a strategic partnership, Ultra Maritime has paired its new miniaturized receivers and half size sonobuoys, including multi-static active capabilities, with a specially adapted unmanned aerial system, allowing for double the search area and higher probability of detection.

From the Surface: The internally designed Ultra Maritime Mission Pod is a self-contained towed-array-in-a-box that provides modular capability to manned and unmanned surface ships. When deployed with a decoy array as part of a layered torpedo defense system, it can be integrated within a broader network of Ultra Maritime’s shipboard sensors, decoys and countermeasures for complete undersea situational awareness.

From Undersea: Ultra Maritime has developed Sea Spear, an entirely new ASW modality. Sea Spear is a fixed, clandestinely deployable, long endurance and attritable sonar array. Via a strategic partnership, Sea Spear deploys from unmanned underwater vehicles providing towed array-like sensitivity and detection using AI-enabled processing at the tactical edge.

At Ultra Maritime, we blend innovation and proven expertise to deliver the ASW solutions required for today’s threats and tomorrow’s advantage. What was once theoretical is now possible – Ultra Maritime is redefining the future of anti-submarine warfare.

Ultra Maritime and General Atomics Announce Strategic Partnership to Revolutionize Unmanned Airborne Anti-Submarine Warfare

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COLUMBIA CITY, Indiana – General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) and Ultra Maritime are proud to announce a strategic partnership to substantially advance the state of the art in unmanned airborne detection and tracking of enemy submarines. By combining the world’s most advanced and prolific unmanned aerial system (UAS), GA-ASI’s MQ-9B SeaGuardian®, with the world’s only miniaturized, low power sonobuoys and receivers, the strategic partnership will make it possible for the U.S. and its allies to use sophisticated techniques to track submarines in hostile, GPS-denied environments.

As adversary submarines proliferate and become stealthier, unmanned underwater vehicles grow in number and GPS jamming becomes more prevalent, the need for assured and affordable anti-submarine warfare (ASW) solutions is more critical than ever. While unmanned technologies are the clear best solution to this challenge, limitations to date in suitable ASW technologies have prevented real world solutions from emerging. This strategic partnership will provide a significant new capability where small form factor sonobuoys and receivers, aboard a long-range unmanned aircraft, can provide autonomous, low cost ASW in a GPS-denied environment.

The GA-ASI MQ-9B SeaGuardian provides unmatched multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting (ISR&T). GA-ASI will integrate the MQ-9B SeaGuardian with Ultra Maritime’s exclusive small form factor (half size) sonobuoys to double UAS capacity. These sonobuoys will provide Multi-static Active (MSA) capabilities achieving unprecedented wide-area search. Furthermore, Ultra Maritime’s new acoustic receivers will be half the traditional size, making them ideal for UAS deployment. The receivers will enable more effective ASW in GPS-denied environments and will monitor more sonobuoys per MQ-9B mission through advanced communications technology. The solution is fully funded by internal research and development, and an integrated operational demonstration of this capability will occur in the Indo Pacific and other theaters beginning in 2025.

Anduril and Ultra Maritime Announce Exclusive Partnership on Groundbreaking Autonomous Ocean Sensing Capability

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BRAINTREE, Massachusetts – Anduril Industries and Ultra Maritime are proud to announce an exclusive partnership to develop a significant new capability in next generation unmanned subsea sensing, making it possible for U.S. and allied nations to enhance their submarine detection capabilities rapidly and inexpensively. By bringing together Ultra Maritime’s innovative Sea Spear deployable acoustic arrays and AI enabled acoustic processing with Anduril’s undersea autonomy capabilities, including Dive XL and Seabed Sentry, plus Anduril’s Lattice communications framework, the partnership will provide a major advance in distributed, low-cost undersea surveillance.

As enemy submarines grow quieter and greater in number, the need for low-cost solutions to submarine detection grows. Autonomous systems provide a clear path to low-cost, low-risk anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capability, but have to date been hampered by inadequate technology. Issues of range, endurance, sensitivity, communication, scale and more have limited advances in autonomous or uncrewed ASW. Anduril and Ultra Maritime have developed an innovative approach to make autonomous undersea ASW possible.

The concept uses Anduril’s Dive XL to autonomously deliver and deploy Anduril’s Seabed Sentry modular undersea payload system, which in turn hosts Ultra Maritime’s Sea Spear lightweight sensing array as a payload. Once deployed, Sea Spear pushes Sonar processing to the tactical edge using modern AI techniques. The system then uses acoustic communications and Anduril’s Lattice framework to provide users real time, autonomous submarine sensing. Multiple systems can be deployed in a distributed manner, enabling a user to see detects distributed across large ocean areas. The joint effort is well underway and achieves end to end in-water testing in 2025.

Ultra Maritime Features First-of-its-Kind Lightweight Deployable Sonar Capability at Sea Air Space 2025

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As submarine and autonomous threats increase and become more stealthy, undersea domain awareness is becoming more critical than ever. Ultra Maritime will present a new, unique and innovative solution for these undersea threats in the form of a lightweight deployable sonar capability called Sea Spear at Sea Air Space 2025 next week in National Harbor, Maryland.

Including this exciting new technology, Ultra Maritime will highlight the following at its booth #1111:

Sea Spear – New Lightweight Deployable Sonar
Ultra Maritime unveils Sea Spear, a first-of-its-kind lightweight deployable sonar system that enhances submarine detection capabilities rapidly and inexpensively. As the maritime domain shifts, submarines become more stealthy and unmanned underwater vehicles grow in number, Sea Spear provides a solution for long endurance and long-range surveillance capability and threat monitoring. Deployable from crewed or uncrewed surface and underwater platforms, the 21-inch diameter unit expands to create a high-performance, wide-aperture array. Already well into its development phase and in-water testing, full operational demonstration will occur in 2025. As part of an exclusive partnership, Ultra Maritime’s Sea Spear will be deployed with Anduril’s Seabed Sentry, a network of ‘cable-less’ deep-sea nodes that sense, process and communicate critical subsea information in real time.

Next Generation Sonobuoys
Ultra Maritime is delivering a new generation of sonobuoys, revolutionizing submarine detection technology with unprecedented predictability and detection capabilities. These redesigned and independently manufactured systems incorporate significant advancements, including enhanced battery technology that extends the operational lifespan of active buoys. This breakthrough provides allied navies with a critical edge in undersea warfare, elevating defense operations to a new level of performance. Ultra Maritime has made significant investments that have fully qualified three new sonobuoy models with two additional qualifications in 2025, and towards creating the factory of the future configured specifically for sonobuoys and made to achieve reliable delivery at the production rate demands of the global market.

Ultra Maritime Mission Pod – Containerized Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW)
The Ultra Maritime Mission Pod is an extensive advancement in towed array packaging technology that enables smaller manned and unmanned surface vessels to greatly increase their anti-submarine warfare capabilities. This game-changing system houses and deploys towed arrays from a 20-foot ISO container, achieving a genuine modular, flexible and scalable solution for any Navy. The Ultra Maritime Mission Pod allows for ASW capabilities without the need for traditional, large, expensive manned surface combatant platforms.

Surface Ship Torpedo Defense
Ultra Maritime has made significant investment towards creating a complete layered torpedo defense solution comprised of multiple strategies and systems working together to detect and neutralize incoming torpedo threats. This next generation torpedo defense capability combines expendable countermeasures, both soft and hard kill, with towed detection and countermeasures, ensuring the safety of naval vessels from torpedo attacks. This integrated approach to torpedo defense is critical to address the growing submarine threat by significantly improving our survivability and drastically shortening the kill chain for an inbound threat.

Next Generation Surface Search Radar
Next Generation Surface Search Radar (NGSSR) is the Navy’s first multi-mission navigation radar that enhances warfighting capabilities and safety of navigation. This radar can be reconfigured through software updates and is designed to support combat systems, surface search, safety of navigation, periscope detection and other missions. Ultra Maritime will highlight a small form factor solution built upon NGSSR, for use on small and unmanned platforms, giving the ability to share data across both manned and unmanned networks and providing a common operating picture while performing surface search and other classified mission capabilities.

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michael H. Lee/Released

Ultra Maritime Awarded Subcontract for MK 48 MOD 7 Guidance and Control Heavyweight Torpedo Program

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BRAINTREE, Massachusetts — Ultra Maritime received a contract to provide the Acoustic Nose Array (ANA) for the MK 48 MOD 7 Guidance and Control section of the heavyweight torpedo in December 2024 from Lockheed Martin in support of their $245 million award for production, spares, production support material, engineering support and hardware repair of components for the MK 48 Guidance and Control Mod 7 program.

Under the terms of the contract, Ultra Maritime is manufacturing fully assembled Nose Array’s based out of its Braintree, Massachusetts, facility. These Nose Arrays incorporate a sonar array that is used to acquire targets and generate the target position data required for engagement.

“Through our ongoing partnership with Lockheed Martin, we are committed to supporting the U.S. Navy and allied nations in their mission to maintain maritime superiority,” said Robert Van Dyke, Vice President and General Manager of Ultra Maritime Seaborne Sensors and Systems.

Ultra Maritime also currently manufactures similar sections for the MK 54 MOD 0 Lightweight and MK 58 Compact Rapid Attack Weapon (CRAW) torpedoes. With decades of experience fabricating, assembling and delivering array assemblies, Ultra Maritime has positioned itself as a trusted transducer manufacturing partner in delivering this critical anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capability to the fleet.

Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jordan Jennings

Ultra Maritime Receives $420 Million Award for Next Generation Surface Search Radar

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Braintree, Mass. – The U.S. Navy awarded Ultra Maritime a $420 million firm-fixed-price contract for production of AN/SPS-73(V) 18 Next Generation Surface Search Radar systems, with an initial value of $84 million. Work will be performed in Braintree, Massachusetts (73%); Wake Forest, North Carolina (17%); and Chantilly, Virginia (10%), and is expected to be completed by August 2027. If all options are exercised, work will continue through September 2031.

Click here for the official DoD award announcement.