US Navy's minehunting Knifefish UUV swims through new test round

[Zarvan]

The US Navy's minehunting Knifefish UUV is continuing with testing. It is based on the General Dynamics Bluefin Robotics Bluefin-21 deepwater autonomous underwater vehicle Source: General Dynamics Mission Systems

The General Dynamics Mission Systems Knifefish team completed "a comprehensive evaluation" of Knifefish, an autonomous surface mine countermeasure unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) the company is developing for the US Navy.

Knifefish, which is designed to detect buried and bottom mines, is planned to eventually deploy as part of the navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) mine-countermeasures (MCM) mission package.

Testing was done with submerged navy mine test targets and "represents a significant milestone in the Knifefish programme and demonstrates the UUV's capability to detect and classify potential mines, at a variety of depths", according to General Dynamics. "The UUV located and classified mine test targets submerged at various depths and on the seafloor," it said.

As of this writing the company had not responded to questions regarding the results of the evaluation and what was learned about Knifefish's performance.

Want to read more? For analysis on this article and access to all our insight content, please enquire about our subscription options:　ihs.com/contact




To read the full article, Client Login
(161 of 544 words)

http://www.janes.com/article/68908/us-navy-s-minehunting-knifefish-uuv-swims-through-new-test-round