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ThayerMahan wins Office of Naval Research contract to expand capability of autonomous USV
By:
Damien Kemp
Outpost USV will form the basis of development work being carried out by ThayerMahan.
US company ThayerMahan has been awarded $19.2 million by the US Office of Naval Research to continue with development of systems for underwater and seabed surveillance.
The contract was awarded in October under the heading 'Autonomous Mobile Maritime Systems for Tactical Surveillance, Undersea Warfare, and Subsea and Seabed Warfare'. The description of awarded contract stated it was for the development of 'specialised long-endurance autonomous platforms, sensors, autonomous behaviours, signal processors, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning techniques, and improved endurance capacity'.
The company has six major products, with its main focus on Outpost, an autonomous maritime sensing system that can be deployed in support of strategic maritime operations.
Additionally, the contract will support further development of the technology behind Seapicket, a buoy-based, multi-sensor maritime/port security platform designed to collect, process, store maritime identifiers and build a secure, cloud-based maritime database.
ThayerMahan chairman and CEO Michael Connor said the contract would take the systems a step closer to potential fielding and the possible creation of a programme of record.
'The contract is to primarily advance our sonar capabilities and our sensor autonomy, the two main thrusts, and to continue to improve the efficacy for US government use,' Connor said. '[We are looking to] improve sensor detection range, so it approaches ranges that are achievable with advanced platforms like submarines, and increase the automation of the classification.'
Cloud-based information has been considered by the company to be a key aspect of the system offering a way to support multi-domain interoperability, viewed as a function of how information is shared and an alternative to the potentially less-efficient system of information travelling through a chain of command.
'We achieve success if we can put hundreds of these in the field and have them operate mostly autonomously [because] we won't get much effect if we have to have an operator for each one [so] our digital signal processing technology is a big focus,' Connor said.'
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