Tods says this is the first time that the US Navy has specified British designed Bow Sonar Domes. The first dome was delivered at the end of 2009.

The Bow Sonar Dome is a underwater enclosure, manufactured of composite materials, which houses the ship’s warfare sonar suite, and is a proven technology utilised on many Royal Navy and NATO navy vessels over a number of years.

The latest US Navy dome is scheduled to be shipped from Tods Defence production site, at Portland, UK, to the Bath Iron Works ship building yard of General Dynamics in June.

“We have received significant support from the US Navy Department of Defense and their integrated system suppliers Raytheon over the development of these Bow Sonar Domes for DDG1000 and DDG1001 vessels, which are the most sophisticated warships in the world," says Steve Burton, Managing Director Tods Defence. "We have been awarded QA accolades for two successive years for this work, and we are confident this is just the start of a long relationship for future US ship build programmes.”