$330M military radar contract for LI firm

Telephonics Corp. has a new defense contract to provide 160 anti-submarine and anti-surface radar systems, mostly for the U.S. Navy’s MH-60R Romeo helicopter, an award worth more than $330 million, the Farmingdale company said this week.

The Long Island company's award, described as “a multiyear, full-scale production contract,” is a subcontract from prime contractor Lockheed Martin, which has responsibility for providing an advanced avionics package for the Navy helicopter. Some of the MH-60R radar systems will be installed on Australian military helicopters; Telephonics did not say how many.

The Telephonics-supplied system is the AN/APS-153 Multi-Mode Radar, and it includes friend-or-foe capability and “reliable maritime domain surveillance in all weather conditions, day or night.” It also includes automatic radar periscope detection and discrimination systems.

Joseph Battaglia, president of Telephonics, said the system “provides the U.S. Navy with an unprecedented capability to successfully perform their difficult and often dangerous missions.”

A subsidiary of Griffon Corp., Telephonics designs, develops and manufactures radar and other communication and sensor systems. Griffon, headquartered in Manhattan, is a holding company with four wholly owned units. The other three are Ames True Temper, a maker of hand tools for landscaping; Clopay Building Products, a garage door maker; and Clopay Plastic Products, which makes films and laminates.

Photo: the U.S. Navy's MH-60R helicopter cockpit.