ThayerMahan to Continue Building Maritime Sensors Under Defense Department Contract

The Department of Defense has awarded the autonomous maritime surveillance solutions provider ThayerMahan a three-year, $19.3 million contract for maritime sensing technologies.

The company specializes in autonomous platforms, sensors, signals processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Under the contract, ThayerMahan will continue developing sensors to enhance the U.S. Navy’s and the U.S. Marine Corps’ undersea and maritime advantage.

The contract will be overseen by the Office of Naval Research, ThayerMahan said Thursday.

The award builds on several efforts by the U.S. military centered on sensor capabilities.

In May, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division hosted a workshop for the Multi-SpecTral High-Resolution Imaging and Targeting Sensor, an initiative designed to expand the reaches of maritime electro-optical and infrared capabilities. MUST-HITS is designed to identify multiple targets at once.

In January, the Air Force Research Laboratory awarded BAE Systems a $12 million contract to continue developing a prototype multimode, open architecture seeker that can fend off maritime threats. Peter Dusaitis, chief scientist at BAE’s FAST Labs, said the seeker can identify targets from long distances, thereby enhancing warfighters’ ability to defend against threats.