Jane Edwards
The Department of the Navy has awarded Hydronalix a Small Business Innovation Research contract to update a micro unmanned surface vehicle designed to perform situational awareness, communications and mine hunting functions.
A notice posted Wednesday on FedBizOpps says the SBIR program’s phase III contract calls for Hydronalix to integrate an acoustic communications platform with the micro-USV, perform technical research to facilitate integration of optical sensing tools as well as develop functional and baseline performance requirements.
The contract has a base term of 14 months and an option period of eight months.
The Naval Air Systems Command expects the basic ordering agreement order to result in a field-deployable platform that will work to help the commander fifth fleet explosive ordnance disposal forces monitor MK18 underwater drones and remotely communicate through a command and control console.
NAVAIR said the C2 console can be based onboard a remote shore site, afloat forward staging base or a rigid hull inflatable boat.
Hydronalix develops small maritime robotic platforms designed to support bathymetric mapping, search-and-rescue, meteorological station data collection, and underwater intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
