Speaking to Shephard at AUVSI's Unmanned Systems North America in Las Vegas on 7 August, Stanley DeGeus, senior business solutions director of advanced systems at the company said AAI is ready to respond with its bid, and is looking at sweep system manufacturers to add to the common platform.
'We hope we can put the appropriate equipment on; we're finding partners with the required sweep system.'
The company is leveraging its experience in developing UAVs into the manufacture of the platform- in particular its C2 experience- and the vessel is a USV that can conduct a 'multitude of missions.
'The common part is that we think it's a multiple mission-capable system,' DeGeus continued. It has a plug and play payload bay, and if it fits it flies.'
The entire operation was conducted completely unmanned, and used a six screen display C2 configuration.
'We demonstrated flawlessly that one operator can operate two systems,' DeGeus explained. 'The C2 is second to none. This type of C2 isn't easy to do, but we've done it and it will be a risk reduction for both the US and international navies.'
The system is currently at prototype stage, and over two years the company has amounted some 1,000 operational hours demonstrating the capability of the system.
A UAV launcher can also be integrated onto the vessel: 'We've done the form and fit, but not the function.
'We think this should be the unmanned surface vessel globally,' DeGeus continued. 'We're definitely leveraging all of the autonomous and C2 capability of our UAVs.'
The company also sees that the air and maritime system can be used together in order to provide a more comprehensive naval ISR offering.
'We hope the navy will realise the fact that you can plug and play out of the back of the platform...and the navy will say that this is the only way to do business,' DeGeus concluded. 'We're the only one with the 1,000 hours, the C2 capability and the ability to do the missions autonomously.'
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