Goodrich delivers 331st sonar dome rubber window

Goodrich Corporation recently delivered its 331st sonar dome rubber window (SDRW) to the United States Navy. Goodrich’s engineered polymer products (EPP) team in Jacksonville, Florida has been the exclusive supplier of sonar domes for FFG-7, DDG-51, and CG-47 class ships to the Navy and allied navies for more than 40 years. A sonar dome is an acoustically transparent housing that surrounds the sonar transducer array, which together make up the sensor part of the sonar system.

DDG-51 class destroyers are the newest class of ships that use SDRWs and are multi-mission combatants. They can conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence and crisis management to sea control and power projection, in support of national military strategy. DDG-51 class destroyers are capable of simultaneously fighting air, surface and subsurface battles. The ships contain a myriad of offensive and defensive weapons designed to support maritime defense needs well into the 21st century.

Mounted on the bow of destroyers and cruisers, the sonar dome surrounds and protects the ship’s sonar array while offering minimum interference to sound transmission and reception for enhanced detection and classification of underwater targets. Goodrich pioneered the development of rubber wire-reinforced surface ship sonar domes for anti-submarine surface combatants. The rubber’s unique energy absorption and reflection properties enhance the ships’ detection capability.