Textron Systems Corporation has been awarded a contract valued up to US$106 million for Mine Sweeping Payload Delivery Systems (PDS) by the US Navy. The contract supports Mine Countermeasure Mission Package (MCMMP) PDS production, spares, and engineering services.
The MCMMP supports U.S. Navy mine sweeping and mine hunting mission sets. This award allows Textron's Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle (CUSV) system to complete mine sweeping missions semi-autonomously.
The Minesweeping PDS will sweep for magnetic, acoustic and magnetic/acoustic combination mines using a towed acoustic generator and magnetic minesweeping cable.
“The MCM mission package advances the navy’s abilities with USVs, providing additional security for our sailors,” said David Phillips, Senior Vice President Air, Land and Sea Systems at Textron Systems. “The PDS award allows the navy to take integration one step further through production and fielding, resulting in a semi-autonomous solution.”
Textron Systems has supported the navy’s Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) design/production contract award since 2014, developing the first mine-sweep payload delivery system designed for uncrewed surface vessel operations. In 2022, Textron Systems achieved Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) and supported the navy for MCMMP Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (IOT&E).
Textron Systems was also awarded the Magnetic and Acoustic Generation Next Unmanned Superconducting Sweep (MAGNUSS) award in March 2023 to support the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to develop new non-towed sweep system capabilities to supplement legacy towed mine-sweep systems.