The  U.S. Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman Undersea Systems a USD9.9 million contract to maintenance and support of the AN/AQS-24 mine detection system, the US Department of Defense (DoD) announced.

The contract, announced by the Department of Defense (DoD) on 3 July, will run through by April 2019.

The contract covers exercise options for the accomplishment of depot level repair, maintenance, and modifications of the AN/AQS-24 mine detecting system to support the Navy for the currently deployed airborne mine countermeasures legacy systems.

Northrop Grumman Undersea Systems will provide depot repairs and incorporation of engineering change proposals, including the updates of all integrated logistics support documentation to support the conversions and sustainment. Work will be performed in Annapolis, Maryland.

The AN/AQS-24 Mine hunting system is a helicopter towed SONAR array system, incorporating SONAR, laser and acoustic payload configurations used in the detection and classification of oceanic mine threats. The system consists of the tow-fish, tow cable/umbilical and tow vehicle, most commonly the MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopter.