The U.S. Navy awarded Textron’s [TXT] AAI Corp. unit a $22 million modification for low rate initiation production (LRIP) for the Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) days after the system achieved Milestone C.
The UISS Unmanned Surface Vehicle program will allow Littoral Combat Chips to perform the mine countermeasure sweep mission and will target acoustic, magnetic, and magnetic/acoustic combination type mines.
“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,” the contract announcement said.
This comes days after the Navy’s Program Executive Office of Unmanned and Small Combatants granted UISS Milestone C on Feb. 26. The Navy said it plans to exercise options to procure three UISS LRIP systems in FY 2021 under the current engineering and manufacturing development contract with Textron that was awarded in 2014 (Defense Daily, Feb. 27).
Work under the latest award will be split between Hunt Valley, Md. (70 percent) and Slidell, La. (30 percent) and is expected to be finished by August 2021.
The full $22 million is being obligated at time of award, with $8 million expiring at the end of this fiscal year.