Mine Warfare Systems News

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has acquired the Engineering Solutions Division of The Columbia Group, a designer and builder of unmanned underwater vehicles for domestic and international customers. As a previous stand-alone division within The Columbia Group, ESD is headquartered in Panama City Beach, Fla., and employs about 30 engineers, analysts, craftsmen and technicians. While ESD’s primary customer is the U.S. Navy, the company develops and builds specialized manned and unmanned undersea vehicles for military customers around the world. It has built or converted specialized craft for a variety of purposes, including support of submersibles and submarines, special warfare, testing of mine warfare systems, torpedo countermeasures and more.

General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems completes the critical design review for 'Knifefish', the surface-mine countermeasure unmanned undersea vehicle (SMCM UUV). Knifefish is an essential component of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) mine countermeasure (MCM) mission package, providing U.S. Navy commanders and sailors with enhanced mine-hunting capabilities. The General Dynamics team will now begin the development of the system hardware and software to integrate the approved design via the fabrication of three engineering development modules. Expected to attain initial operational capability in 2017, Knifefish is the first heavyweight…

Representatives from the U. S. Navy's Program Executive Office, Littoral Combat Ships Unmanned Maritime Systems Program Office and General Dynamics unveiled a quarter-scale model of the Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (SMCM UUV), known as "Knifefish," at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space Exposition being held at the Gaylord National Resort. Knifefish is a heavyweight-class, minehunting, unmanned undersea vehicle designed for deployment by forward operating forces, and will be a part of the Littoral Combat Ship Mine Countermeasures Mission Package. The SMCM UUV system will allow Navy commanders and sailors to detect and identify mines in high-clutter underwater environments without putting sailors in harm's way.

The U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command has awarded General Dynamics Advanced Informational Systems a contract to design and build the Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (SMCM UUV) system. The system will initially be a part of the Littoral Combat Ship Mine Warfare mission package. The contract has a maximum potential value of $86.7 million for one Engineering Development Model (EDM) and five low-rate initial production systems if all options are exercised. General Dynamics Advanced Informational Systems is a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD). The SMCM UUV system will allow Navy commanders and sailors to reliably detect and identify mines in high-clutter underwater environments in a single pass…

Norfolk/Bremen – The Atlas Elektronik Group, a worldwide acting company for maritime defense electronics, has founded a subsidiary in North America. Atlas North America (Atlas NA) has been set up to establish a strong and reliable partnership with the US Navy and US authorities. As potential main contractor Atlas NA will provide Atlas products and solutions for current or future US users. This is an important step within the globalization strategy of the company, which is based with its headquarters in Germany.

The Services Department of Atlas Elektronik has reported that, in future, the company will provide support to 16 mine warfare systems of the type IMCMS (Integrated Mine Countermeasure System) for the Belgian Navy and the Royal Netherlands Navy. The corresponding agreement with ATLAS has been signed by Belgium’s Minister of Defense. With a term of fifteen years, the contract covers the entire life-cycle of the Belgian and Netherlands mine countermeasure vessels. These comprise ten units of the Netherlands ALKMAAR class and six of the Belgian FLOWER class. ATLAS is the system leader and responsible for integration of the IMCMS on the vessels.

and the U.S. ceremonies tomorrow in Panama City, Fla. being developed for the LCS. warfare. containerized and ready for installation and activation aboard any LCS. management grid. and surface warfare packages in 2008 and 2009. Dr. Delores M. for the event. senior company official at the ceremony. packages. that are developing and delivering the first several prototypes. as a "plug-and-fight" package. and with the greater Navy network in which the LCS functions. subsurface domains. They comprise warfighting capabilities (e.g. the operators. unmanned vehicle, a Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems product. 20 feet long, 8 feet wide and 8 feet tall. mine countermeasures package. containers to be shipped to staging areas around the world. Littoral Mine Warfare.

The Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command (NMAWC) Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) Platoon completed its support of Talisman Saber 2007 on June 18, executing multiple Remote Environmental Monitoring Units (REMUS) missions off the northeastern coast of Australia. Talisman Saber 2007, the second U.S.-Australian bilateral biennial exercise, began June 12 and will be completed July 2. The primary aim is to conduct collective training and interoperability between Australian and U.S. forces with a focus on combined forces advanced operations planning and execution. “[Talisman Saber] was a great opportunity for the NMAWC Corpus Christi UUV Platoon to conduct coordinated operations with Australian mine countermeasure (MCM) and hydrographic units during a live exercise at sea…