Jane Edwards
The U.S. Navy is soliciting information on industry capabilities that could support a program meant to develop a clandestine tactical mining platform with an expendable unmanned underwater vehicle that could be torpedo-launched from the service’s submarines to meet future submarine payload requirements.
The Mining Expendable Delivery Unmanned Submarine Asset program will include the development of a medium-class UUV, payloads and supporting equipment, according to a request for information published Monday.
Naval Sea Systems Command expects risk reduction, prototype design, fabrication and test award to occur by the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023 and delivery of four prototypes by FY 2026.
The service said the UUV should comply with the Unmanned Maritime Autonomy Architecture and the vendor should be responsible for meeting interface requirements for the payloads.
The MEDUSA procurement program will cover systems engineering, analysis, design, development, fabrication, testing, assembly, maintenance and operator training, documentation, software, planning, qualification and related support services needed to ensure readiness of the program to transition to the production phase.
Responses to the RFI are due May 27.
