Undersea warfare capabilities to be advanced with new partnership

Virginia Tech National Security Institute (VTNSI) researchers are partnering with a maritime defense contractor to support maritime domain awareness and develop advanced undersea warfare capabilities.

With headquarters in Arlington, Virginia and DeLeon Springs, Florida, Sparton is a defense contractor focused on manufacturing capabilities, specializing in producing high-quality sonobuoys critical to the United States’ undersea warfare arsenal, and enhancing national security against current and future adversaries. Their expertise includes advanced research systems, maritime solutions, sophisticated sensor technologies and payload delivery capabilities, according to the Sparton team.

“The partnership makes sense because VTNSI has expertise through our faculty in our Mission Systems Division in acoustics, which is the space Sparton is already in, so we can understand where the technology is already at,” said Mark Limes, associate professor of quantum systems in VTNSI’s Spectrum Dominance Division. “But we also have expertise in new areas like quantum sensing, so we can make some suggestions of where they could potentially expand in the future.”

VTNSI’s existing expertise in maritime domain awareness includes developing advanced underwater robots and autonomy algorithms that enable them to operate intelligently without human oversight, in addition to other projects.

Through the partnership, VTNSI researchers will help to test, evaluate, and identify areas for new underwater sensor technology implementation for existing Sparton sonobuoys. A sonobuoy is an expendable buoy equipped with hydrophones to detect underwater sounds and transmit them via radio to ships or aircraft.

"Partnering with institutions like Virginia Tech strengthens our commitment to supporting national defense and homeland security," says Donnelly Bohan, Sparton president and CEO. "Under this Master Research Agreement, Sparton and VTNSI can combine their capabilities and expertise to deliver the maritime and undersea warfare solutions our customers and warfighters need. Sparton also looks forward to expanding our engineering capabilities in the DC area."