Knifefish News

The U.S. Navy needs more ships. And that means the Navy has to build more ships than it is decommissioning.The sea service has a stated a goal of 355 ships, and as many as 500 and more when unmanned platforms are counted. There are 298 ships in the fleet today. For surface ships, this number includes a high-low mix of highly capable large surface combatants, and smaller ships such as littoral combat ships LCS).The Navy’s smallest combatants are the 330-ton, 197-foot coastal patrol boats (PCs). Up until recently, ten of them have been serving in the Middle East with the U.S.

To find the mine warfare challenge with the highest degree of difficulty, start at the bottom.Lurking unseen below the surface, naval mines pose a serious problem. They’re cheap, relatively easy to deploy and can inflict heavy damage against even the most sophisticated warships. They can be hard to detect and difficult to counter. What you can’t see can hurt you. And the most difficult mines to find and eliminate are bottom and buried mines. Navies have developed ships to hunt for mines in the water column so they can be avoided or destroyed…

The U.S. Navy uses unmanned and robotic underwater vehicles for a multitude of functions, including environmental sensing, mine hunting, and salvage. The Navy plans to evolve an unmanned systems operating concept that is platform agnostic and capable of operating in highly complex contested environments with minimal operator interaction.The most recent edition of the Navy’s Unmanned Systems (UxS) Roadmap was issued in 2018, and a new version is expected in the near future. The 2018 document states that UxS will operate in every domain…

The Program Executive Officer for Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) granted Milestone C approval to the Knifefish Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Program. The decision clears the way for low-rate initial production (LRIP) of the system, PEO USC announced Aug. 23.The Navy is expected to award a LRIP contract to Knifefish prime contractor General Dynamics Mission Systems.The Knifefish system is designed for deployment from the littoral combat ship (LCS), vessels of opportunity or from shore to detect and classify buried, bottom and volume mines in high-clutter environments. Knifefish is a critical element of the LCS Mine Countermeasure Mission Package and will reduce risk to Navy personnel and equipment.The Knifefish system…

Following the drawdown at the end of the Cold War, the Navy finds itself trying to build up again. The expansion of Russian and Chinese naval power has changed the calculus. While there will always be a debate about the final number of ships to build, we can all agree on one thing: the Navy must get bigger and the demand signal is to start building now,” said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, in testimony before Congress regarding the sea service’s 2019 budget request.

The General Dynamics Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) successfully launched multiple Bluefin SandShark micro-autonomous underwater vehicles (M-AUV) Underwater vehicle (M-AUV as part of several capability demonstrations at the U.S. Navy sponsored 2016 Annual Naval Technology Exercises (ANTX) in Newport, R.I. Through several ANTX demonstrations, the Bluefin SandShark M-AUVs surfaced and functioned independent of the heavyweight-class Bluefin-21. In one mission scenario, the Bluefin-21 simulated data collection and transfer of target imagery and other information to two Bluefin SandSharks. Those Bluefin SandSharks then surfaced to communicate with a Blackwing unmanned aerial vehicle.

General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics, completed the comprehensive risk reduction program for the U.S. Navy’s Knifefish Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) program. Designed to discover any potential systems defect early on in the program’s development phase, the configuration item test (CIT) successfully verified key components within the UUV system including the hardware architecture and critical areas of hardware and software integration.

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.