U.S. Navy Awards $11.26 Million for Undersea Acoustic Warfare Technology
The U.S. Navy has awarded Integer Technologies LLC an additional $11.26 million to advance technology that interprets underwater acoustic environments and provides decision-support information for undersea warfare missions.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) exercised Option I under contract N0001426C2208 through modification P00002, continuing the Operationalizing Marine Acoustics for Strategic Awareness research effort. The November 5, 2026, contract announcement identifies the work as part of a broader effort to operationalize passive acoustic soundscape data for undersea warfare (USW) and seabed and subsea warfare (SSW).
The research focuses on combining physics-based models, machine learning models and new acoustic soundscape models into a framework that can operate aboard manned and unmanned platforms.
The objective is to give military operators a more complete understanding of the underwater acoustic environment, allowing them to make better-informed decisions about maneuvering, communications, sensing and mission execution.
A New Approach to Understanding the Underwater Environment
Underwater acoustic conditions can influence how naval platforms detect signals, communicate and conduct surveillance. Sound propagation also changes with environmental conditions, making the interpretation of acoustic information a complex technical challenge.
The Navy’s research effort aims to move beyond the collection of individual acoustic signals toward a more comprehensive interpretation of the surrounding soundscape.
Passive acoustic systems listen to sounds already present in the environment rather than relying exclusively on actively transmitted sonar signals. These sounds can contain information about natural ocean conditions, vessel activity and other acoustic sources.
However, collecting acoustic information is only part of the challenge. Operators must also interpret large amounts of data and determine which information is relevant to their missions.
The Integer Technologies program is intended to address that problem through automated processing and interpretation.
According to the contract description, the framework will combine three principal elements:
- Physics-based models: Used to represent and interpret the physical behavior of underwater acoustic environments.
- Super intelligence and machine learning models: Included in the research framework to support automated analysis and interpretation.
- Novel acoustic soundscape models: Designed to provide a broader understanding of the acoustic environment surrounding operational platforms.
The Navy has not publicly disclosed detailed model architectures, processing performance or specific detection capabilities under this contract.
Autonomous Platforms Are a Major Part of the Research
An important aspect of the program is its intended application aboard both manned and unmanned platforms.
Naval forces increasingly use unmanned underwater vehicles and other autonomous systems for sensing, surveillance and operations in environments where continuous human control may be difficult.
These platforms can collect information over extended periods, but their operational usefulness depends partly on their ability to interpret information and respond appropriately.
The ONR-funded research seeks to develop tools that allow autonomous systems and their human operators to understand underwater acoustic conditions through automated data processing.
This could help platforms adapt their behavior according to the environment and mission requirements.
For example, acoustic conditions may influence how an underwater vehicle navigates, manages communications or employs its sensors. A system capable of interpreting changes in the soundscape could provide information that supports adjustments to those activities.
The contract does not identify specific autonomous vehicle models or confirm integration with any operational U.S. Navy platform.
The distinction is important: the current effort is a research and development program, not an announcement that a new operational underwater surveillance system has entered service.
Why the Navy Is Investing in Acoustic Soundscape Analysis
Undersea warfare depends heavily on understanding an environment that is difficult to observe directly.
Submarines, underwater vehicles and seabed infrastructure operate in conditions where conventional visual surveillance is limited. Acoustic sensing therefore remains an important part of naval underwater awareness.
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s Acoustics Division conducts research into acoustic signal generation, propagation, scattering and detection to improve Navy and Marine Corps capabilities.
Its research areas include acoustic signal processing, underwater communications, acoustic classification, distributed sensing networks and autonomous underwater vehicle applications.
The Office of Naval Research also supports ocean acoustics research covering passive and active sound, underwater signal propagation and the analysis of ambient ocean sound.
Integer Technologies’ effort fits within this wider research environment, with an emphasis on translating acoustic information into actionable decision support.
The operational value is not necessarily limited to detecting a particular underwater contact. A more complete understanding of the acoustic environment could also help operators assess how changing conditions affect sensing, communications and autonomous platform behavior.
For the Navy, this is particularly relevant as underwater operations increasingly involve coordination between crewed platforms, unmanned vehicles and distributed sensing systems.
However, the contract announcement does not establish how much the technology will improve detection, tracking or mission effectiveness. Those outcomes will depend on research results, testing and eventual integration into naval systems.
Contract Funding and Development Timeline
The $11,265,876 modification covers the exercise of Option I under the existing Integer Technologies contract.
The funding details are:
| Contract detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Contractor | Integer Technologies LLC |
| Contract number | N0001426C2208 |
| Modification | P00002 |
| Option value | $11,265,876 |
| Initial obligated funding for Option I | $7,575,499 |
| Funding source | FY2026 Navy RDT&E |
| Contracting activity | Office of Naval Research |
| Work location | Durham, New Hampshire |
| Expected completion | October 2029 |
The Navy said the option will be incrementally funded. The $7,575,499 obligated at the time of award is therefore the initial funding commitment identified in the announcement, rather than the full option value.
The obligated funds come from fiscal 2026 Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (Navy) appropriations and are scheduled to expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Integer Technologies is headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina, while the announced performance location for this effort is Durham, New Hampshire.
From Acoustic Data to Operational Decision Support
One of the central challenges in autonomous undersea operations is determining how much information a platform can process and interpret without continuous human intervention.
An autonomous vehicle may collect substantial amounts of acoustic data, but raw information does not automatically translate into useful operational awareness.
The Navy’s research is directed toward developing automated tools that convert those observations into information that operators and decision-makers can use.
This approach could support faster adaptation to changing underwater conditions while reducing the burden of manually interpreting acoustic information.
It also reflects a wider naval research interest in combining physical models with machine learning and autonomous sensing. ONR’s maritime sensing program, for example, identifies computationally intelligent sensors, autonomous signal processing and automated command-and-control decision aids among its research areas.
The immediate objective of the Integer Technologies contract remains research and development. Public information does not yet establish the final system architecture, planned operational deployment or the platforms that could eventually receive the technology.
With work expected to continue through October 2029, the program will provide additional time to develop and evaluate tools intended to improve how U.S. naval forces interpret the underwater acoustic environment.
