Profile - Harris Acoustic Products Corporation

Harris Acoustic Products is an engineering and manufacturing company specializing in the development and production of underwater acoustic hydrophones, projectors and related electronics for the US Navy, OEM market and commercial buyers. The company was founded in Woodbury CT in 1951 and moved to Westwood MA in 1961. As one of the early occupants of Route 128, America's Technology Highway, we remained in Westwood until 1991. Since then we have been a member of Channel Technologies, Inc, based in Santa Barbara CA and own and occupy the former Bird Corporate Headquarters building in East Walpole.

Harris Acoustic Products designs and manufactures sonar projectors, hydrophones, and associated equipment for Navy, OEM, and commercial customers. We are the manufacturer of the High Frequency Sail Array (HFSA), arguably the most sophisticated submarine sonar in production. The HFSA is being installed on Virginia, Seawolf, and Los Angeles class submarines. In the fall of 2005 we were awarded a second $13 million dollar, five year contract from the US Navy to supply the

submarine fleet with HFSA sonars. We also are the suppliers of the Virginia class Chin Hydrophone modules. These modules mount under the bow of our newest class submarine and provided the ship with advanced sensing capabilities.

The Harris built HFSA is also at the heart of the DDX Destroyer's Integrated Underwater Warfare System. Mounted in the destroyer's bow dome, it provides in-stride mine avoidance and other critical shallow water sonar capabilities.

Our TR-232 and TR-233 acoustic communications transducers will also be mounted in the DDX bow dome.

In addition to transducers, Harris is the supplier of electronics assemblies that are used in underwater applications. The Large Spherical Array Outboard Electronics Assembly (LSA-OBE) and the Wide Aperture Array Outboard Electronics Assembly (WAA-OBE) are two examples. The LSA-OBE and the WAA-OBE are multi-channel sonar amplifiers and signal conditioning units that are mounted outboard the hull of submarines.

The AN/WQC-2A, Sonar Communications Set, is a product that that has been in production at Harris for more than 30 years. We have supplied this system, and both the TR-232 and TR-233 acoustic communications transducers and the inboard electronics equipment to practically all US Navy war ships and many foreign navies. We are under contract to build systems for both new construction DDG-51 class destroyers and new construction Korean frigates.

Harris has been a supplier of diver operated hand held sonars to the US Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal divers since the mid-eighties.We recognize that Public Safety diver teams are becoming more directly involved in supporting Maritime Homeland Security missions without the advantage of all the sensors and search tools available to the US Navy. We simplified the design of our commercially successful DLS-1 diver hand held sonar to create a new product, the DLS-3 Explorer, specifically directed toward the Public Safety diving community. This smaller, light weight unit is every bit as rugged and accurate as its Navy predecessor, but at a lower cost.

Harris Mission Statement