US Navy Places Order for Gavia AUV
The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Centre (SPAWAR), San Diego has placed its initial order for a Gavia AUV for testing in mine countermeasures (MCM) applications, and has an option to procure up to 10 additional units under an existing contract awarded to Hafmynd Ltd, Iceland.
The funding is provided through the US Secretary of Defence sponsored Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) program, whose aim is to support the procurement of select foreign non-developmental equipment in order to save the cost of developing comparable US technology.
The Gavia AUV brings a series of capabilities to the United States Navy unavailable on compact size vehicles previously tested for MCM applications. Among them are capabilities made possible by unique features offered as standard in the modular Gavia AUV system. These include over-the-horizon deployment capability using the on-board Iridium satellite link, dual-battery module operation for extended range at high cruising speed and built-in obstacle avoidance. In addition to the Iridium link, the Gavia selected by SPAWAR, contains a high-speed wireless LAN and an underwater acoustic link. Completely buoy-free navigation is made possible by high-precision on-board GPS- and DVL-aided INS.
