The US Navy has awarded a contract to L3Harris for the production of TB-29C long-range towed sonar arrays on submarines, an improvement on TB-29A sonars.
A contract for TB-29C long-range towed sonar was announced on the official government website, SAM. The notice published on the 15th of January 2026 states that the contract for new sonars is valued at $31 million.
TB-29C is an upgraded variant of the TB-29A currently used by Virginia-class attack submarines (SSN).
Towed sonar arrays have the advantage of minimal disturbance from the deploying platform’s own noise sources (Propulsion or other equipment) due to being at a considerable distance away. This allows towed sonars to detect targets with a lower noise signature more easily compared to the hull-mounted sonars.
