Company AAI contract for low rate production of Unmanned Influence Sweep System for US Navy.

On February 28, 2020, a statement was released on the Official U.S. Government website to announce that the Company AAI Corp. (doing business as Textron Systems), Hunt Valley, Maryland, is awarded a $21,795,236 fixed-price incentive modification to previously awarded contract N00024-14-C-6322 for low rate initial production for the Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) Unmanned Surface Vehicle Program.

Textron CUSV Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle. (Picture source Textron)

Work will be performed in Hunt Valley, Maryland (70%), and Slidell, Louisiana (30%), and is expected to be completed by August 2021.

The UISS will allow the littoral combat ship to perform its mine countermeasure sweep mission and will target acoustic, magnetic, and magnetic/acoustic combination mine types. The UISS program will satisfy the Navy's need for a rapid, wide-area coverage mine clearance capability, required to neutralize magnetic/acoustic influence mines. UISS seeks to provide a high area coverage rate in a small, lightweight package with minimal impact on the host platform.

The US Navy’s Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) programme will used the Textron Systems’ Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle (CUSV) designed to operate as part of the littoral combat ship (LCS) mine countermeasure (MCM) package. The UISS package consists of a mine countermeasure unmanned surface vessel (USV) and a towed minesweeping package that can detect magnetic, acoustic and combination mines.

The Textron CUSV is an Unmanned Surface Vessel designed to perform mine sweeping and neutralization operations, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), harbor security and monitoring or protection missions. It has an endurance of 20 hours and maximum range of 140 km.