U.S. Navy to Upgrade Fleet of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
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U.S. Navy officials have asked Hydroid Inc. to repair and upgrade the Navy’s fleet of MK 18 Kingfish unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), as well as to help train Navy personnel to use the unmanned submersibles.
The Navy’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division at Indian Head are awarding Hydroid a $26.2 million contract to handle the UUV work.
The Navy’s MK 18 UUV is a variant of the Hydroid REMUS 600, which Hydroid developed originally through funding from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Arlington, Va., to support the Navy’s UUVs with extended endurance, increased payload capacity, and greater operating depth.
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The REMUS 600 can dive to depths of nearly 2,000 feet, and caan operate on one battery charge for as long as 24 hours. The UUV is used for mine countermeasures; harbor security; debris field mapping; search and salvage; scientific sampling and mapping; hydrographic surveys; environmental monitoring; and fishery operations. REMUS is short for Remote Environmental Measuring Unit S.
The torpedo-shaped REMUS 600 UUV is nearly 13 feet long, two feet in diameter and weighs 622 pounds. It has a modular design to meet a variety of payloads and a series of hull sections that can be separated for vehicle reconfiguration, maintenance, and shipping.
On the current contract Hydroid will do the work in Pocasset, Mass., and should be finished by 2018. Hydroid is a subsidiary of Kongsberg Maritime AS in Kongsberg, Norway.
