NEW YORK, 26 June 2007.EDO Corporation, as a member of a consortium led by Atlas Elektronik U.K., has been awarded a research contract by the U.K. Ministry of Defence. The contract calls for the consortium to demonstrate the use of an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) to combat "influence" mines.
The Atlas-QED consortium, which also includes team-member QinetiQ, plans to have a prototype system ready by early 2009 to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept, as part of the Royal Navy's Fast Agile Sweep Technology (FAST) program.
"We believe unmanned boats can serve as effective low-observable mine countermeasure platforms," says James M. Smith, EDO's chief executive officer. "We will apply our 40 years of experience at influence minesweeping to the task of demonstrating the feasibility of this concept to the Royal Navy. We are now under contract in both the United States and the United Kingdom to adapt our influence-sweep technology to unmanned vehicles."
EDO has also received a two-year contract from the U.S. Navy's Surface Warfare Center to support USV systems for Littoral Combat Ship mine-warfare missions. Under this contract, EDO will develop new USV test models and system prototypes, and then analyze their integration into Littoral Combat Ship mission modules.
Influence mines are triggered by the magnetic or acoustic signature of a ship and therefore do not require contact to detonate.
EDO's MK 105 magnetic-influence minesweeping system is a high-speed catamaran hydrofoil platform that is towed behind the MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter. The MK 105 can be used to clear a path through a minefield for ships in transit or clear an entire operation area at high speeds.
EDO is currently developing a new, smaller minesweeping system known as the Organic Airborne and Surface Influence Sweep (OASIS). OASIS is a self-contained, high-speed, shallow-water magnetic and acoustic influence sweeping device that can be carried by helicopter to the operating area. Production is expected to begin in 2008.
