NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.–The Navy expects initial operating capability (IOC) for its sonobuoy submarine sensing system in May, an official said Monday.
Known as the Multi-Static Active Coherent (MAC), the system is comprised of sonobuoys dropped from aircraft to the ocean’s surface. The buoys then “give reflections off of large targets, such as submarines, and then transmit it to the aircraft for processing and display to the tactical air crew,” program executive officer Rear Adm. CJ Jaynes said here at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space exposition.
“It really gives us an improved signal processing to the mission set that we’re currently using,” she said.
MAC’s IOC will first be achieved with
Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft. The system will be integrated onto Boeing’s P-8 Poseidon aircraft with early operating capability expected at the end of fiscal year 2014. Full IOC will come with the P-8’s Increment 2 in FY 2016, Jaynes said.
MAC is being completed in two phases. The first phase saw the system tested in harsh, shallow water. The next phase will explore the system’s deep-water capability.
The Navy awarded Lockheed Martin $59 million in 2009 to integrate MAC onto its P-3C.