Lockheed Martin nets $20M for U.S. submarines electronic warfare support system

Lockheed Martin was awarded an $20 million contract for AN/BLQ-10 Electronic Warfare System for U.S. submarines.

According to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Syracuse is awarded a $20 million contract for engineering and technical services for the design, development, testing, integration, technology insertion/refreshment and system support of the AN/BLQ-10 Electronic Warfare System (Technology Insertion (TI)-20, TI-22, and TI-24) on new-construction and in-service submarines.

The contract will include options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $970,083,614.  The work will continue through February 2029. 

The AN/BLQ-10 system is an electronic warfare support system for U.S. submarines. It provides automatic intercept capability (detection, classification, localization, and identification) for both radar and communications signals. Multiple subsystems process radar and communications signals.

The AN/BLQ-10 processes signals collected with the submarine’s masts. Radar signals are collected by the imaging mast, which is either a photonics mast (on the Virginia class) or a periscope (on all other classes).

Communications signals are collected from both the imaging mast and a dedicated communications intercept mast, which is either an AN/BRD-7 (on the Los Angeles and Seawolf classes), an AN/BSD-2 (on the Virginia class), or an MMM (recently fielded on some Los Angeles- and Virginia-class ships). These masts provide largely the same functionality but with different frequency coverage and localization accuracy