Leidos to build four medium-sized unmanned underwater vehicles to enhance submarine undersea sensors
WASHINGTON – Unmanned systems designers at Leidos Inc. in Reston, Va., will design four experimental medium-sized unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) for marine environmental sensing and counter-mine warfare under terms of a $36.3 million contract announced in July.
Officials of the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington are asking Leidos to build four Medium Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (MUUVs) for torpedo tube-launched environmental sensing and maritime expeditionary mine countermeasures. This contract has options that could extend through 2032 and increase its value to $358.5 million.
Leidos won a $12 million Navy contract last year to design the MUUV, which will combine unmanned vehicle and sensors to provide persistent surface-launched and -recovered mine countermeasures and submarine-based autonomous oceanographic sensing and data collection.
The MUUV will be a modular open-systems unmanned underwater vehicle that will support the next generation of the Navy's Program Executive Office Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) Unmanned Maritime Systems Program Office (PMS 406) Razorback UUV program and the Expeditionary Missions Program Office (PMS 408) Viperfish Maritime Expeditionary Mine Countermeasures UUV.
Razorback is a medium-sized UUV that launches from a submarine's dry deck shelter, instead of from the torpedo tube. It carries environment-sensing payloads to enhance underwater surveillance capabilities.
Initial MUUV production systems will be for expeditionary mine countermeasures, while others will support submarine-based autonomous oceanographic sensing and data collection for environmental sensing and mine countermeasures.
On this contract Leidos will do the work in Fall River, Mass.; Lynwood, Wash.; Arlington, Va.; and Newport, R.I., and should be finished by April 2026. For more information contact Leidos online at www.leidos.com/capabilities/integrated-systems/autonomy-and-autonomous-solutions.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
