On January 20 the Royal Norwegian Navy (RNoN) directed the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment (FFI) to deliver a military Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) prototype, with the intention of using the military AUV system in mine countermeasure (MCM) and rapid environmental assessment (REA) ops. The delivery is part of a plan to establish a forward autonomous MCM/REA capability to the Navy. The delivery is a successor to the very successful operations, test and evaluations performed by the use of the HUGIN I vehicle from one of the RNoN MCM vessels during the last two years. Kongsberg Simrad will produce and deliver the vehicle by the end of 2003.