Ultra Maritime to Enhance ASW capabilities of Marine Nationale in France

COLUMBIA CITY, Ind. – Ultra Maritime continues to expand its growing list of customers for the next generation of sonobuoy technologies, and is proud to announce a significant multi-product award from Thales Group in support of Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA), the French Government’s defense procurement and technology agency. DGA will be procuring both active and passive sonobuoys, including some of the latest technologies from Ultra Maritime’s new U.S. production lines, that together will provide significant anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities.

As undersea domain awareness becomes increasingly critical, and submarine and uncrewed threats more and more stealthy, enhancements in sonobuoy performance make the difference between detecting an undersea threat and missing it. Following several years of development and recapitalization, Ultra Maritime now offers multiple fully qualified, volume production sonobuoys manufactured in plants in the U.S., Canada and UK, that together address the world’s most demanding ASW needs. Ultra Maritime, through Thales, will provide the Marine nationale with an enhanced ASW capability and an increased probability of detection of undersea threats.

Ultra Maritime will be supplying newly designed and qualified U.S.-built AN/SSQ 62E DICASS and AN/SSQ 53G DIFAR sonobuoys. These sonobuoys offer significant performance improvements and are equipped with cutting-edge battery technology which nearly doubles the operational life of the active sonobuoys and augments their acoustic output, while providing precise detection, localization and classification, ensuring reliability of outcomes in critical defense operations. Ultra Maritime will also supply G-size AN/SSQ 536G Bathythermal buoys from its Canadian site in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. G-size sonobuoys deliver advanced sonobuoy technology in a more compact form, ideal for rotary wing and Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) operations where minimizing payload dimensions and mass are important factors.