General
Dynamics Advanced Information Systems has successfully completed the
critical design review for Knifefish, the surface-mine countermeasure
unmanned undersea vehicle (SMCM UUV), one month ahead of schedule. The
General Dynamics team will now begin the development of the system hardware
and software to integrate the approved design via the fabrication of
three engineering development modules. Knifefish is an essential component
of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) mine countermeasure (MCM) mission
package, providing U.S. Navy commanders and sailors with enhanced mine-hunting
capabilities.
Expected to attain initial operational capability in 2017, Knifefish
is the first heavyweight-class mainstream mine countermeasure (MCM)
UUV that will address the Navy's need to reliably detect and classify
mines resting on the seafloor and buried mines in high-clutter environments
and areas with potential for mine burial. Knifefish also gathers environmental
data to provide intelligence support for other mine warfare systems.
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Knifefish
will help greatly reduce risk to Navy personnel and ships by operating
in minefields as an off-board sensor, while the host ship stays outside
the minefield boundaries. The modular, open Knifefish has been designed
to integrate with both variants of LCS via the common LCS interface
control document.
"Knifefish is designed to be compatible with an open architecture
platform, ensuring that the Navy's mission systems will keep pace with
technology and continue to evolve to meet current and future mission
requirements," said Lou Von Thaer, president of General Dynamics
Advanced Information Systems. "The ease of the 'plug and play'
integration with ship systems and mission modules allows for platform
flexibility and quick reconfiguration of the whole mission package in
response to the dynamic requirements the fleet will encounter day to
day."
The U.S. Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) awarded General Dynamics
Advanced Information Systems a contract to design and build Knifefish
in September 2011. The General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems
team on the Knifefish program includes Bluefin Robotics (Quincy, Mass.),
Ultra Electronic Ocean Systems (Braintree, Mass.), Oceaneering International,
Inc. (Houston, Texas), Metron (Reston, Va.), Applied Research Laboratory
at Penn State University (State College, Pa.), 3 Phoenix (Hanover, Md.),
General Dynamics Information Technology (Fairfax, Va.) and ASRC Research
Technology Solutions (Greenbelt, Md.). |
