Modularized unmanned vehicle packages for the littoral combat ship mine countermeasures missions

The planned acquisition of a leased High Speed Vehicle (HSV) for Mine Countermeasures (MCM) and Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) experimentation provides a significant opportunity to examine and accelerate unmanned systems for mine Countermeasures. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) S&T investments are developing containerized mission packages (to include inexpensive AUVs for minehunting, and Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV) for minesweeping) for demonstration on HSV-2 SWIFT. This builds on the rapid advance of AUV technologies and capabilities demonstrated on HSV-X1 JOINT VENTURE during Fleet Battle Experiment-JULIET. ONR is currently working with the Coastal Systems Station (CSS), Panama City, Florida for the development of the mission modules, and with the Commander, Mine Warfare Command and the Navy Warfare Development Center on an experimentation schedule. ONR/CSS intend to have the first AUV mission package ready when the SWIFT is available for experimentation in FY2004. Additional AUV mission packages and the USV mine sweeping mission package will follow. Lessons learned from experimentation would be applied to the LCS, and reduce risk to the definition of MCM mission modules composition. Additionally, these unmanned vehicle mission packages provide a contingency capability for operating forces and provide a readily deployable underwater search and survey capability that could be used for homeland defense.