U.S. Navy Orders Nine Mk20 Electro-Optical Sensor Systems EOSS from L-3

: Posted On Saturday, 25 July 2015 18:03

Naval Defense Industry News - USA

U.S. Navy Orders Nine Mk20 Electro-Optical Sensor Systems EOSS from L-3

L-3 KEO has been awarded a multimillion dollar contract option from Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) for nine Mk20 Electro-Optical Sensor Systems (EOSSs), the company announced in a July 22 release.

In 2005, L3-KEO won a competitive procurement to provide the U.S. Navy with an Electro-Optical Sensor System (EOSS) to fulfill the needs of the Cruiser (Ticonderoga class) Modernization Program. Building on the proven MK46 Optical Sight System, the MK20 MOD 0 EOSS was designed to incorporate the latest technologies into a proven baseline. Among the state-of-art features that were incorporated are full digital stabilization with high reliability fiber-optic gyros, a separate eyesafe laser rangefinder LRU that incorporates a longlife diode-pumped laser with an increased rep rate and increased ranging performance, improved BIT and maintainability features, as well as excellent sensor to sensor boresight alignment.

L-3 KEO will build and test the systems, as well as perform engineering services activities, over the course of the next two years in its Northampton facility. This is the final contract option from a sole-source NAVSEA contract that was awarded to L-3 KEO in 2011 and raises the total number of Mk20 EOSSs ordered to 61.

“We are very proud of our long history of providing the U.S. Navy with a robust and versatile optical sensor solution that can support a wide variety of important missions,” said Matthew Richi, president of L-3 KEO. “Our system delivers outstanding mission capability and targeting accuracy to the surface warfare community.”

The Mk20 EOSS is an integral part of both the Mk34 and Mk48 Gun Weapon Systems (GWSs) and provides highly accurate, three-dimensional, time-tagged target position data in support of GWS operations, as well as day and night imagery to support visual detection and identification, navigation, surveillance and situational awareness. These gun systems are installed aboard U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class cruisers, as well as U.S. Coast Guard Bertholf-class national security cutters.