Navy planning Hammerhead industry day to discuss design, production contract

The Navy is planning a March 23 industry day to discuss the contract award for design, development and production of Hammerhead, a maritime mining system deployed from an unmanned undersea vehicle to detect and destroy anti-submarine warfare assets, according to a Navy notice published last month.

"The system is conceptually designed to be organic and modular; minimum modular components include the capsule module, energy module, mooring module, and the effector," according to the notice.

"The effector [a Mk 54 lightweight torpedo] is a non-developmental item that the Hammerhead program will integrate with rest of the mine system to provide the required capability," the notices continues.

A request for proposals is expected in fiscal year 2020, the notice says.

Hammerhead, which the Navy also dubbed an "encapsulated effector," was designated as a maritime accelerated acquisition program, according to the service's FY-21 budget documents. That designation grants the program certain contracting authorities to streamline acquisition.

The Navy is requesting $34 million in research and development funding for Hammerhead in FY-21 when the contract award for the system’s production is anticipated.