US Navy awards $257 million MK 48 MOD 7 torpedo contract for Australia and AUKUS submarines.

The United States Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a $257,278,109 contract modification to manufacture components, spares, and hardware repairs for the MK 48 MOD 7 heavyweight torpedo program, supporting allied interoperability frameworks including the AUKUS security partnership. The agreement extends production operations through September 2029 to maintain critical inventory requirements for the U.S. Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, and Foreign Military Sales customers. Work execution is distributed across specialized defense manufacturing facilities in Liverpool, New York; Clearwater, Florida; and Braintree, Massachusetts.

The contract action incorporates $150.6 million in fiscal 2025 Navy weapons procurement funds alongside $74.8 million from foreign military partners to support ongoing guidance, control, and acoustic assembly production for allied submarine fleets. This modification builds on multi-year procurement agreements to sustain a specialized domestic and international manufacturing network supporting advanced undersea warfare capabilities.

Related topic: Australia confirms enduring access for US Virginia-class submarines at HMAS Stirling naval base under AUKUS

The MK 48 MOD 7 is a 533 mm heavyweight torpedo combining a 295 kg warhead, pump-jet propulsion, wire guidance, and CBASS acoustic homing for attacks against submarines and surface ships in deep and shallow waters. (Picture source: Australian MoD)

On September 3, 2026, Lockheed Martin received a $257,278,109 modification contract from the U.S. Navy covering MK 48 MOD 7 heavyweight torpedoes production, spares, production-support material, engineering, and hardware repair, with work continuing through September 2029 for the U.S. Navy, Royal Australian Navy, and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. The award does not specify a number of complete torpedoes, because the contract finances both newly manufactured components and recurring support activity across several parts of the weapon. Work is divided among Liverpool, New York, at 57%; Clearwater, Florida, at 37%; and Braintree, Massachusetts, at 6%. Funding includes $150.647 million (62%) in FY2025 Navy weapons procurement, another 7% from FY2026, $1.217 million (1%) from FY2024, and $74.799 million (30%) from foreign partners. The modification follows a $245.414 million option awarded in September 2024, repeats the same foreign partner proportion, and extends the production horizon by two years, from September 2027 to September 2029.

The original contract began in December 2022 with a $302.243 million action covering proof of manufacture, production, spares, and engineering, initially divided 61% for the U.S. Navy and 39% for Australia. Initial obligations totaled $131.43 million, including $50.617 million for Australia and $80.813 million in U.S. Navy FY2021-2023 funding. NAVSEA then exercised a $245,413,931 option on September 30, 2024, with $243.213 million obligated at award, including $157.933 million in FY2024 Navy procurement funding, $12.062 million from FY2023 and $73.218 million from foreign partners. Foreign funding again represents 30% of the 2026 action, making allied demand a recurring part of the production base. The three principal contract actions since 2022 total $804.935 million in headline value, although this cannot be converted into a torpedo quantity because the spending also includes components, repair, engineering, spares, and production support.

The MK 48 MOD 7 itself is a 533 mm heavyweight torpedo used by the U.S. Navy for both anti-submarine (ASW) and anti-surface warfare (ASuW), measuring 5.8 m and weighing 1,698 kg, including a 295-kg high-explosive warhead equivalent to 17.4% of launch weight. A liquid-propellant system based on Otto Fuel II powers a piston engine connected to a pump-jet propulsor, while guidance combines a wire link to the submarine with active and passive acoustic homing. The wire permits target-position and course updates after launch, particularly against submarines changing depth, speed, or heading. If the connection is lost, onboard Guidance and Control electronics continue the engagement autonomously through search, classification, localization, tracking and terminal homing. The MOD 7 reached Initial Operational Capability in 2006, ten years after the final new-production MOD 6 torpedo was delivered in 1996, and can be used against low-Doppler targets in cluttered shallow-water environments and fast deep-diving submarines.

The MOD 7's principal sensor change is the Common Broadband Advanced Sonar System (CBASS), jointly developed by the United States and Australia. Development testing ended in November 2004, operational testing ended in November 2005, and Initial Operational Capability followed in 2006. The CBASS broadened the acoustic frequencies available to the MK 48 torpedo seeker, increasing the amount of acoustic information available to the processor when distinguishing a target from reverberation, background noise, or countermeasures. The MOD 7 is mainly intended to cover three demanding target categories: low-Doppler submarines in shallow water, fast deep-diving submarines, and surface ships. Its modernization kit includes the broadband analog sonar receiver, Guidance and Control box, pre-amplifier, associated hardware and cables. This modular approach allows sonar processing, electronics, and software to be replaced without manufacturing an entirely new torpedo body. The scale of that approach was demonstrated in 2011, when a five-year Lockheed Martin modernization effort covered 1,263 MK 48 torpedoes.

Production is divided among several specialized suppliers, making component throughput as important as final assembly capacity. Liverpool receives 57% of the 2026 workload and handles Guidance and Control-related electronics and engineering, including circuit cards, power supplies, inertial equipment, qualification and obsolescence work. Ultra Maritime manufactures the Acoustic Nose Array at Braintree, Massachusetts, which accounts for 6% of the award and supplies the acoustic assembly that acquires targets and generates position data. SAIC, for its part, builds, integrates, and tests afterbody/tailcone assemblies and fuel tanks primarily in Bedford, Indiana; each afterbody/tailcone contains 26 major subassemblies made from more than 500 individual pieces. The production chain therefore relies on a production network spanning at least five U.S. states for guidance electronics, acoustic arrays, propulsion-related assemblies, fuel systems, testing, and engineering.

The present production effort follows a 20-year interruption, as the U.S. Navy restarted the production of the MK 48 in FY2016, two decades after the last MOD 6 production torpedo had been delivered in 1996. Re-establishing the line subsequently required roughly three years of redesign and supplier work because numerous components and electronics from the previous production era were obsolete. By April 2024, the restarted line was producing 10 torpedoes per month, equivalent to 120 annually if sustained. At the FY2025 nominal new-production price of $4.2 million per MK 48 MOD 7, 120 torpedoes correspond to $504 million in annual weapon value before separate engineering, spares, and support costs. The separate Rapid Acquisition Procurable Torpedo (RAPTOR) effort targets a price of $500,000 or less and production within one year, making its target unit price 11.9% of the $4.2 million MK 48 figure, to create a lower-cost heavyweight weapon that could increase available shot numbers while the MK 48 continues to absorb the more complex sonar, guidance, propulsion and counter-countermeasure requirements.

Australia's MK 48 involvement predates AUKUS by almost two decades. Collins-class submarines have six 533 mm bow tubes and normally carry 22 torpedoes and missiles, initially entering service with MK 48 MOD 4. Under SEA 1429, Australia considered the MK 48 MOD 6 ADCAP, German DM2A4 and Italian Black Shark before approving a U.S.-Australian cooperative program on March 25, 2003, initially valued at A$430 million. The program funded CBASS development, test equipment, submarine integration, and conversion of MOD 6 weapons to MOD 7, while SEA 1439 introduced the AN/BYG-1 combat system. During RIMPAC on July 25, 2008, the HMAS Waller fired an Australian-assembled MK 48 MOD 7 CBASS that sank a decommissioned U.S. warship, the first MOD 7 warshot conducted by either navy.

Australia added a $200 million agreement for additional MK 48 torpedoes on March 21, 2025, with associated production contracts confirmed by November 7, although the weapon quantity was not disclosed. Torpedo sections are assembled and tested at Australia's Torpedo Maintenance Facility in Western Australia, which supports both Australian and U.S. Navy weapons. This gives Australia an existing MK 48 assembly, maintenance, and certification capability before receiving its Virginia-class submarines in the 2030s under the revised AUKUS agreement. In the current fleet projection, the Collins combines MK 48 weapons, 533-mm tubes, and AN/BYG-1 lineage; the Virginia uses the MK 48 ADCAP family; and the Australian SSN-AUKUS planned for the early 2040s is intended to retain U.S.-Australian combat system, torpedo tube, and weapon commonality, which makes the MK 48 one of the longest-running U.S.-Australian naval programs to date.

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Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.