Textron Systems To Integrate Unmanned Vehicles to Littoral Combat Ships

AAI Corp., a subsidiary of Textron Systems has won a $20 million modification contract to integrate Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) onto the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).

The company will provide engineering and technical Unmanned Surface Vehicle program which will enable the LCS to perform its mine warfare sweep mission, the US Department of Defense said in a statement Thursday.

The UISS is a part of the Mine Countermeasures Mission Package (MCM MP), which uses a system-of-systems approach to target specific portions of the water column and segments of the MCM detect-to-engage sequence.

UISS will target acoustic, magnetic, and magnetic/acoustic combination mine types. The UISS program will satisfy the Navy’s need for a rapid, wide-area coverage mine clearance capability, required to neutralize magnetic/acoustic influence mines. UISS seeks to provide a high area coverage rate in a small, lightweight package with minimal impact on the host platform.

Work is expected to be completed by September 2019.