NEWTOWN, Conn. - The U.S. Navy continues its focus on developing High-Altitude ASW (HAASW) sonobuoys (such as the SSQ-125, which is in production under the Navy's Acoustic Search Sensors program for application on the P-8A ASW aircraft) It is highly likely that technologies developed for the SSQ-125 sonobuoy will be backfitted into several existing sonobuoys such as the SSQ-62(V) and SSQ-101(V).
Given the heightening tensions in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, and South China Sea, Forecast International projected the award of inventory "booster" contracts. And indeed, multiple contracts for SSQ series sonobuoys were awarded in late 2014, and direct replenishment contracts were awarded in March 2015, October 2015, and October 2016 which gave some production life into the SSQ-125 line (as well as into several other SSQ models) for at least the next several years. Nearly 12,000 SSQ-125 sonobuoys are forecast to be made in 2017. Production will then wind down to several thousand per year over the remaining forecast period in the form of booster contracts which the U.S. Navy just awarded on October 10, 2017 as Forecast International predicted by in June 2017.
Unfortunately for the manufacturer, because the U.S. Navy has a strong say over the sale of the SSQ-125 and other sonobuoys in its sphere of influence, it is unlikely to be offered on the international market for the time being.