US Navy Orders Unmanned Surface Vehicles for the Littoral Combat Ship

Released on Thursday, October 19, 2006

The U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SSC, San Diego) San Diego, California, has awarded General Dynamics Robotic Systems a $12.7 million contract for four Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) for the Littoral Combat Ship Anti-Submarine Warfare Mission Module. General Dynamics Robotic Systems is a part of General Dynamics Land Systems (Sterling Heights, Michigan), a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics.

As the prime contractor General Dynamics will provide the Navy with an 11-meter USV that is capable of long endurance missions while being highly efficient. General Dynamics will use its experience and expertise in design, development and integration to provide the command and control and systems integration.

The USV will employ towed arrays, dipping sonar sensors and acoustic sources as payloads to carry out its Anti-Submarine Warfare mission.

"We are honored to have been given the opportunity to design, integrate and deliver the Navy's premiere USV. We are excited at the prospect of incorporating our proven cutting-edge robotic technologies in a state-of-the-art unmanned surface vehicle platform," said Scott Myers, president of General Dynamics Robotic Systems.

General Dynamics' teammates include Navatek, Ltd. (Honolulu, Hawaii), Alion Science and Technology (Boulder, Colorado), Signal Systems Corporation (Severna Park, Maryland), International Logistics Systems (Glen Rock, Pennsylvania), and Chesapeake Sciences Corporation (Millersville, Maryland).

General Dynamics Robotic Systems is a leading performer on Department of Defense advanced robotics technology projects such as the Autonomous Navigation System (ANS) for the Army's Future Combat Systems program, Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA), Mobile Detection Assessment and Response System (MDARS) and Vetronics Technology Integration (VTI).