Raytheon Preps New Mine Countermeasure Tech For Design Review; Randy Brandenburg Quoted

Raytheon is preparing its new Barracuda naval mine neutralization system for preliminary design review in the third quarter of fiscal year 2019 under the U.S. Navy’s Single Sortie Detect-to-Engage mine countermeasure program.

The military branch seeks a single platform that can perform at sea mine detection and neutralization at the same time to accelerate naval missions, the company said Friday.

“What used to take weeks or months will soon be done in a matter of days or hours,” said Randy Brandenburg, senior director for strategy at Raytheon. “Being more efficient makes all the difference.”

Raytheon equipped Barracuda with a kill mechanism, sensors and communications buoy to identify and destroy near-surface, volume and bottom sea mines.

Brandenburg noted the company plans to offer the semi-autonomous underwater vehicle at a lower price compared to neutralizers the Navy currently uses to support mine countermeasures.

Raytheon received a potential $363M contract from the Navy in 2018 to design, test and deploy a mine neutralization system.

The company plans to demonstrate new mine countermeasures techniques during the Naval Undersea Warfare Center’s 2019 Advanced Naval Technology Exercise, scheduled to take place from Aug. 26 to 30 in Newport, R.I.