Unmanned underwater vehicle designers cite hardware-agnostic systems in explosives detection and disposal
SAN DIEGO – As the U.S. Navy explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) community’s capability grows in sophistication and quantity, a community leader says they’re being served well by their creed to remain hardware-agnostic. USNI News reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
6 April 2020 -- The EOD force has been set on a path to grow its Expeditionary Mine Countermeasures Company numbers and double the number of unmanned systems platoons that operate under those companies.
The service’s investment in the people and in the Mk 18 Mod 1 Swordfish and the Mk 18 Mod 2 Kingfish unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) they operate come as the Navy is also planning to merge the Kingfish program with the Razorback UUV the Littoral Combat Ship community uses.
The new Medium UUV program, for which the Navy plans to release a request for proposals by the end of this fiscal year, could end up being the Kingfish or a variation thereof, could look more like the Razorback UUV, or could be sometime brand new, with the open architecture to operate all the sensors and cameras that both the EOD and the LCS communities need.
Related: The dawn of counter-drone technologies
Related: DARPA considers unmanned submersible mothership designed to deploy UAVs and UUVs
John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
