Nichols Martin
General Dynamics has completed sea acceptance tests of a surface mine countermeasure unmanned undersea vehicle the company developed for the U.S. Navy.
The Knifefish UUV was tested across operational MCM scenarios that took place in simulated mine fields off Boston’s coast, General Dynamics said Monday.
Carlo Zaffanella, vice president and general manager of maritime and strategic systems at General Dynamics’ mission systems business, said the recent test phase aimed to demonstrate the system’s capacity to recognize undersea mines.
The company’s Knifefish development team also concluded initial operator training efforts meant to help Navy personnel operate and maintain the platform ahead of the developmental test and operational assessment phase.
The medium-class UUV is based on the Bluefin-21 autonomous undersea vehicle and designed to be deployed from the service branch’s naval vessels such as littoral combat ships.
