Navy Awards Advanced Acoustic Concepts $53.9 Million Mine-Hunting Deal
The Pennsylvania sonar specialist will build two remote mine hunting modules under a contract that could reach $196.2 million if all options are exercised, the Navy said.
LEMONT FURNACE, PENNSYLVANIA — Advanced Acoustic Concepts LLC, a Pennsylvania undersea-warfare specialist owned by French defense group Thales, received a $53.9 million Navy contract to build two remote mine hunting modules, as announced on war.gov.
The award carries options that would lift its cumulative value to $196.2 million, and the Navy obligated Fiscal 2026 operations and maintenance funds of $53.9 million at the time of award. The contract blends cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost, and firm fixed-price terms, and it covers engineering support alongside the two modules. Three offers competed through the SAM.gov website.
Work spans four sites, with 66% in Lemont Furnace, Pennsylvania; 20% in Clarksburg, Maryland; 7% in Great River, New York; and 7% in Washington, D.C. Base work runs through October 2029 and extends through September 2033 if the Navy exercises all options. The modules feed the Navy’s push to strip sailors out of the dangerous work of clearing sea mines, letting ships detect and neutralize underwater threats from a distance. Advanced Acoustic Concepts, a company that serves the U.S. Navy across the undersea warfare domain, generated $80 million in sales in 2021 with more than 200 employees according to leonardo.com.
The deal marks the largest contract in the company’s history, surpassing a prior record of $21.2 million, and stands as its first award of 2026. It also ranks as the 30th Department of Defense contract placed in Pennsylvania this year. Within the Navy’s 2026 portfolio, the sum sits well below the year’s largest award near $8 billion and above the smallest near $9 million.
Defense spending of this scale reaches ordinary households through jobs and local tax bases. Concentrating two-thirds of the work in Lemont Furnace anchors skilled engineering payrolls in southwestern Pennsylvania, while smaller shares sustain suppliers in Maryland and New York. Federal contract dollars flowing to a small firm ripple outward to landlords, vendors, and service businesses in each performance town.
The Navy has bought remote mine hunting capability before. The service spent years developing unmanned mine countermeasures for its Littoral Combat Ship program, and Advanced Acoustic Concepts has long supplied sonar and undersea systems to the fleet. This contract continues that pattern rather than breaking new ground.
The next decision rests with the Portfolio Acquisition Executive Maritime in Washington, D.C., the Navy contracting activity that will determine whether to exercise the options pushing the total to $196.2 million. A date for that decision has not been announced.
Ownership of the company has changed hands as a maritime rivalry played out before. Leonardo DRS agreed in April 2022 to transfer full ownership of the Advanced Acoustic Concepts joint venture to Thales subsidiary TDSI, with the deal expected to close in the second half of 2022 according to leonardo.com. Alessandro Profumo, then Leonardo’s chief executive, called the move “another step forward in the execution of our Industrial Plan” as the group refocused on its core business according to leonardo.com. Thales, a French defense and technology group, gained a foothold in the U.S. Navy’s undersea market that now underwrites the company’s largest award to date.
This contract represents the 1st contract awarded to Advanced Acoustic Concepts LLC, in 2026, bringing the company’s total contract value for the year to $53,943,257. It is also the 30th Department of Defense contract awarded in Pennsylvania during 2026. This is the largest contract ever awarded to Advanced Acoustic Concepts LLC, surpassing the company’s previous record of $21,202,473, and it is notable within the Navy portfolio. Specifically, it falls between the 2026 Navy portfolio’s year-to-date minimum of $9,046,496 and maximum of $8,000,000,000. Overall, this award was announced among 4 Department of Defense contracts issued nationwide on August 3, 2026.
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