Hydroid’s Littoral Battlespace Sensing AUV enters FRP

Hydroid has announced that its contract to provide Littoral Battlespace Sensing (LBS) AUVs to the US Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) has moved into full rate production (FRP). The move to FRP from the Engineering Development Model (EDM) phase follows more than a year of extensive testing and evaluation to determine if the LBS-AUV systems were ready for deployment.

Following approval from the US Navy’s Milestone Decision Authority (MDA) - the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (PEO C4I) - SPAWAR has ordered production of three LBS Remus 600 AUVs and one Shipset, including a launch and recovery system (LARS), a LARS flat rack, a mission van, a maintenance van and vehicle support equipment.

According to the company, the AUVs ordered by SPAWAR will be equipped with advanced technologies for the collection of oceanographic and meteorological data, as well as technologies for processing and dissemination of these data. This technology will enable decision-making based on information collected by a system of networked sensors and shared through a network of interoperable naval and joint network information systems. These on-board instruments will accurately catalogue a wide variety of environmental parameters, and provide environmental data that will play a critical role in supporting worldwide navy requirements.

The ultimate end user of the AUVs is the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), which acquires and analyses global ocean and littoral data to provide operationally significant products and services to all elements within the US Department of Defense.

Christopher von Alt, President and co-founder of Hydroid, said: ‘We’re very pleased by the MDA’s decision to grant us accelerated approval for FRP. We’re grateful to our strong team of partners for their hard work to make this possible, including the programme’s sponsor, the Oceanographer of the Navy (CNO N2/N6E). We look forward to continuing this important work with PEO C4I and NAVOCEANO.’