General Dynamics Applied Physical Sciences Wins $50 Million Navy Ship Signature Research Contract

General Dynamics Applied Physical Sciences Corp. of Groton, Connecticut, won a $49.9 million Naval Sea Systems Command contract for engineering and technical design supporting Navy research and development. The work covers platform-based development, prototyping and demonstrations, advanced hull-treatment design, acoustic and non-acoustic signature measurement technologies, and studies of foreign technologies. Awarded Sept. 30, 2026, the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract will be performed in Groton and is expected to be completed by September 2030.

Navy Signature Research and Design Details

Applied Physical Sciences will conduct platform-based engineering and develop prototypes and demonstrations under the contract. Its design work will also address advanced hull treatments—an area of signature control concerned with how a vessel’s exterior contributes to its detectability. The award notice identifies these fields of work but does not assign the contract to a particular ship class or describe a production deliverable.

The company will work on technologies for measuring acoustic and non-acoustic signatures and perform special studies of foreign technologies. Those tasks sit within a broader Navy discipline that uses measurements and engineering analysis to inform both vessel design and changes to existing platforms. NAVSEA’s Ship Signatures Department description identifies underwater acoustics, electromagnetic signatures, vibration and full-scale measurement among the capabilities in that discipline.

Recent Navy testing illustrates the range of measurement challenges relevant to the field. Carderock engineers have assessed submarine acoustic measurements collected under Arctic ice, while another Navy effort advanced underway signature measurement for unmanned underwater vehicles. The award notice does not identify either effort as work under this contract.

Award and Contractor Background

The Navy competitively procured the contract through a broad agency announcement and received one offer. The award was made on Sept. 30, 2026, with Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington serving as the contracting activity.

Applied Physical Sciences has appeared in earlier Navy acquisition planning for related technical work. A Carderock Ship Signatures forecast covering requirements through 2017 listed the company as the incumbent for planned platform signature control, mitigation and diagnostics support. An earlier NAVSEA acquisition forecast listed it for planned submarine structural-acoustics and hydrodynamic modeling services. Those forecasts document experience in closely related fields, rather than the value or terms of an earlier award.

This award was disclosed by the DoW in its daily press release. Additional contract details will be available on HigherGov in approximately 90 days under N0002426C2177 after the contract is formally disclosed by the government.