Navy planning LDUUV industry days June 16, 17

The Navy is planning virtual industry days June 16 and 17 to brief companies about the service's future development and procurement plans for the Large Displacement Unmanned Undersea Vehicle.

The event will include briefs on "the Navy's family of UUVs; the LDUUV program vision and objectives; the program schedule; the contracting, competition, and business strategy; the engineering / technical requirements and objectives; the Unmanned Maritime Autonomy Architecture, the Payload Handling System, the Modified Dry Deck Shelter and the Common Control System," according to a May 21 Navy notice.

The service also plans to distribute a draft solicitation to approved contractors and request feedback during the industry day, the notice said.

The Navy has been working with industry to develop a design for LDUUV, a sub-launched surveillance asset, and in 2019 accelerated those plans by five years 202912.

"One Phase 1 vehicle, with sufficient test spares, will be fabricated for integration onto dry deck shelter (DDS) equipped submarines with testing commencing in FY-21," according to the latest Navy budget justification documents.

"The next phase will be a competitive award to industry. . . . In order to support this accelerated transition to industry, the required technical data package and contracting documents will be compiled in FY-19 and FY-20, culminating with a competitive request for proposal (RFP) release in FY-20," the budget documents continue.

The service expects to award one vendor options to produce four vehicles starting in FY-23.