Scott Nicholas
The U.S. Navy and General Dynamics‘ mission systems unit have evaluated a company-built autonomous surface mine countermeasure unmanned undersea vehicle during a series of tests held off the coast of Boston.
General Dynamics said Monday the tests aimed to determine if the Knifefish UUV could detect and classify mines that pose potential threats to naval vessels at different depths of water.
Knifefish is based on the Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle developed by General Dynamics’ Bluefin Robotics subsidiary.
The company said it will conduct additional at-sea tests on the UUV during the year as part of efforts to optimize the performance of the vehicle and prepare for the formal system acceptance testing by the Navy.
General Dynamics developed Knifefish to function as an off-board sensor and to help reduce personnel risk during operations in the minefield.
Capt. Jon Rucker, program manager at the Navy’s unmanned maritime systems program office, said the service branch will continue to work with General Dynamics to further develop, test and deliver Knifefish to the fleet.
