# Acoustic Search Sensors — Program Element 0604261N

**Program element:** 0604261N  
**Component:** U.S. Navy  
**Appropriation:** 1319 — RDT&E, Navy  
**Budget Activity:** 5 — System Development & Demonstration  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604261N

## Summary

U.S. Navy requests $48.9M in FY2027, sustained across the five-year plan. In the FY2027 defense authorization, the House funded it in full; the Senate funded it in full; House appropriators funded it in full. Boeing leads the industry work.

## Funding profile

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | Actual | 51.9 |
| FY2026 | Enacted | 52.5 |
| FY2027 | Request | 48.9 |
| FY2028 | Outyear | 52.0 |
| FY2029 | Outyear | 53.5 |
| FY2030 | Outyear | 53.5 |
| FY2031 | Outyear | 54.6 |

> Estimate types are not summed — the profile mixes actuals, enacted law, the request, and outyear projections.

## Congressional marks (FY2027)

| Stage | Marked ($M) | Change ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| Request | 48.9 | — |
| House NDAA (HASC) | 48.9 | +0.0 |
| Senate NDAA (SASC) | 48.9 | +0.0 |
| House Approps (HAC-D) | 48.9 | +0.0 |

> FY2027 NDAA authorization marks, as of 2026-07-27. Not appropriations or final law.

## Projects (2)

| Project | Title | FY2025 actual | FY2026 enacted | FY2027 request | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0480 | ASW Sensors & Proc | 41.4 | 41.7 | 40.6 | −3% |
| 3224 | High Altitude ASW | 10.5 | 10.9 | 8.3 | −23% |

> Projects are the summable leaves: the program element total is their sum, never added to it.

### Project 0480 — ASW Sensors & Proc

The Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Sensors and Processing project provides tools and methods necessary to maintain maritime superiority by preventing near-peer threat submarines from completing their hostile missions or disrupting the U.S. Navy's ability to control sea lanes of communication. Project 0480 provides funding for Engineering & Manufacturing Development and follow-on Production and Deployment of new and/or improved passive and active air ASW family of systems that enable cuing, search, detection, localization, track, and attack of subsurface targets. Smaller and quieter threat submarines drive requirements for continued advancement in ASW sensor capabilities for both open-ocean and littoral environments in order to overcome challenges associated with reduced target acoustic signatures and increased background clutter caused by the water depth, high volume of shipping, and commercial radio frequency interference. Multistatic Active Coherent Enhancements (MAC-E): PE 0604261N funds the incorporation of the capability into the P-8A Acoustic Operating Flight Program (AOFP), integration of the AOFP into the P-8A Mission suite and associated training system and Post Flight Analysis (PFA) tool updates. The remainder of the integration into the P-8A platform is accomplished via PE 0605504N. UnderSea Advantage (USA): USA is the next generation of multistatics. USA incorporates an incremental improvement upon the existing system and will be accomplished via three blocks. The first block (USAB1) adds the Digital DIFAR Vertical Line Array (DDVLA) sonobuoy (SSQ-145) and software modifications to meet required capability performance metrics. USAB1 will be funded in the following manner: Early development and technology maturation efforts are funded under PE 0603254N, and PE 0604261N funds the incorporation of the capability into the P-8A AOFP and integration of the AOFP into the P-8A Mission suite. 0604261N also funds the associated training system and Post Flight Analysis (PFA) tool updates. The remainder of the integration into the P-8A platform is accomplished via PE 0605504N.

**Named R-3 performers** (share of this project's FY2027 R-3 total, so they need not reach 100%)**:** Boeing (9.8, 24%), NAWCAD (8.4, 21%), NAVMAR APPLIED SCIENCES (1.3, 3.3%).

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multistatic Active Coherent (MAC) | 36.7 | 37.0 | 35.9 |
| APB System Qualification Test/Fleet Release. Rapid Capability Insertion (RCI)/Fleet Release for P-8A | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.6 |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

### Project 3224 — High Altitude ASW

Key Enablers and Sonobuoy Enhancements (KESE) provides increased P-8A operational flexibility and effectiveness throughout the kill chain. Funding addresses key enablers such as, uplink/downlink sonobuoy communications assurance, acoustic communications (ACOMMS) on Increment 3 Block 1 (I3B1) aircraft via FR-115 and P8A Increment 3 Block 2 (I3B2) aircraft and sonobuoy enhancements that include: link availability and assurance, cyber protection and the integration into the AOFP software.

**Named R-3 performers** (share of this project's FY2027 R-3 total, so they need not reach 100%)**:** ULTRA MARITIME (1.9, 22%), NAWCAD (0.3, 3.9%), Boeing (0.2, 2.0%).

| Activity (R-2A) | FY2025 | FY2026 | FY2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Key Enablers and Sonobuoy Enhancements | 10.5 | 10.9 | 8.3 |

> R-2A activities carry the prior, current and budget year only — no five-year plan. Coverage is partial, so count them, never total them.

## Where the FY2027 request goes

| Category | Share | $M |
|---|---|---|
| Industry primes | 45% | 21.8 |
| Other / unspecified | 55% | 27.0 |

**Top named industry performers:** Boeing ($9.9M, 20%), NAWCAD ($8.7M, 18%), ULTRA MARITIME ($1.9M, 3.8%), NAVMAR APPLIED SCIENCES ($1.3M, 2.7%).

> R-3 exhibit contract funding, not USAspending obligations.

## Mission & acquisition strategy

The Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Sensors and Processing project provides tools and methods necessary to maintain maritime superiority by preventing near-peer threat submarines from completing their hostile missions or disrupting the U.S. Navy's ability to control sea lanes of communication. Project 0480 provides funding for Engineering & Manufacturing Development and follow-on Production and Deployment of new and/or improved passive and active air ASW family of systems that enable cuing, search, detection, localization, track, and attack of subsurface targets.

The MAC-E ASW system and associated sonobuoys are fully integrated on the P-8A ASW platform to maintain superiority by preventing near peer threat submarines from completing hostile missions. MAC-E is a development program associated with P-8A Increment 3 that will improve mission effectiveness by significantly increasing the wide area search capability through Engineering Change Proposals (ECPs) to the sonobuoys, aircraft software modifications to reduce clutter and improve processing, and Operator Machine Interface (OMI) improvements to reduce operator workload. USA continues to expand on threat submarine advancements through the introduction of a series of sensor system capability enhancements.

## Related program elements

- [0603254N — ASW Systems Development](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603254N) (Navy)
- [0604112N — Gerald R FORD CI NUC Aircraft Carrier CVN 78-80](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0604112N) (Navy)
- [0603627A — Smoke, Obscurant and Target Defeating Sys-Adv Dev](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0603627A) (Army)
- [0605275A — Electronic Warfare Systems Development](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0605275A) (Army)

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Department of the Navy RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibits R-2/R-3, PE 0604261N (PB PB2027); FY2027 NDAA committee marks (as of 2026-07-27).
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_program_element(pe="0604261N")`.

*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Budget figures are requests/estimates, not obligations.*