Navy seeking information on next-generation UUVs

The Navy is requesting information from industry and academia to explore autonomous performance prediction and fault mitigation for unmanned undersea vehicles.

A two-day, unclassified workshop will take place in February and focus on UUVs’ performance estimation as the duration of the UUV mission increases, according to a revised request for information issued today.

“It is anticipated that performance, fault handling and overall reliability will become even more important as UUV missions increase in duration from hours to days or weeks of operation,” the RFI states.

Operational UUVs do not perform the same on-site as the systems do in controlled test environments, the RFI states, “which can lead to negative impacts on overall mission performance.”

“The interactive effects of the ocean environment on navigation, power generation, and other UUV operations carried out during missions will be considered during this workshop; these effects include current, temperature, salinity, density, bottom depth, and bottom type,” the RFI states.

The workshop will explore why on-site variations occur and how the changes can be evaluated and mitigated, according to the RFI.

Earlier this month, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division hosted an industry day to discuss a contract that would support current and future autonomous and unmanned systems.

During the industry day, the Navy said the ceiling value of the contract is $62 million and the award will be made in the first quarter of fiscal year 2023.