U.S. Navy designers needed navigation sensors for an unmanned undersea vehicle. They found a solution with Lockheed Martin.

Under a $10.6 million contract, Lockheed Martin engineers will integrate a sensor array capable of three-dimensional (3D) obstacle detection and classification, VHF communication, and 3D bathymetry into the Navy’s Advanced Development Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (ADUUV).

Lockheed Martin will provide engineering and manufacturing services to integrate the Littoral Precision Underwater Mapping Array (LPUMA) sensor-produced by the Applied Research Laboratory in Austin, Texas-into the ADUUV.

Work will be in Riviera Beach, Fla., and is expected to be completed by September 2007. For more information, see www.lockheedmartin.com.

The ADUUV, the first underwater vehicle of its kind designed to accommodate interchangeable modular payloads that can be swapped out for various missions, is the precursor to the revolutionary MRUUV.

The system will be deployed from a Virginia-class or Los Angeles-class submarine for launch and recovery through submarine torpedo tubes and be used for clandestine intelligence collection, surveillance, and reconnaissance, as well as mine reconnaissance and tactical ocean survey.