Knifefish Unmanned Undersea Vehicle
Keeping Sailors Out Of The Minefield
Knifefish is a heavyweight class Mine Countermeasure (MCM) Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) designed for deployment off the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The Knifefish UUV provides the mine warfare commander with enhanced mine-hunting capability by detecting, classifying and identifying both buried mines and mines in high clutter environments.
The LCS Mine Countermeasure Mission Package
A critical element of the LCS Mine Countermeasure (MCM) mission package, which is comprised of many different mine warfare platforms, including Knifefish, is its common open systems architecture design. Such modularity of the mission package allows for platform flexibility and quick reconfiguration of the whole mission package in response to evolving and dynamic mission requirements the fleet will encounter day-to-day.
Knifefish’s job is to detect, avoid and identify mine threats, reducing the risk to personnel by operating in the minefield as an off-board sensor while the host ship stays outside the minefield boundaries. Knifefish also gathers environmental data to provide intelligence support for other mine warfare systems.
Benefits of Knifefish
- Detects, classifies and identifies volume, proud and buried mines in high-clutter underwater environments
- Allows “plug and play” integration with ship systems and mission modules
- Integrates into multiple ship types
- Provides intelligence support for other mine warfare systems
- Enables rapid mission turnaround time
In Focus
More News
General Dynamics Team Successfully Completes Critical Test Phase for U.S. Navy Knifefish Unmanned Undersea Vehicle
The General Dynamics Mission Systems team successfully completed all stages of formal Sea Acceptance Testing (SAT) of Knifefish, the U.S. Navy's Surface Mine Countermeasure (MCM) Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) system. The tests were conducted off the coast of Boston using Navy mine test targets and included a variety of undersea, MCM operational scenarios in multiple simulated mine fields.
Austal USA: Littoral Combat Ship Tulsa (LCS 16) Completes Acceptance Trials
Tulsa (LCS 16), the eighth Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) built by Austal, successfully completed acceptance trials March 08 in the Gulf of Mexico. General Dynamics Mission Systems is the Independence-variant LCS systems integrator, responsible for the design, integration and testing of the navigation, C4I, and aviation systems.
Austal USA: Austal USA Christens USNS Burlington (EPF 10)
MOBILE, Ala. - Austal celebrated the christening of Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF) the future USNS Burlington (EPF 10) with a ceremony at its state-of-the-art shipbuilding facility this morning. Burlington is the tenth of 12 EPFs that Austal has under contract with the U.S. Navy with a combined value of over $1.9 billion.
