The U.S. Navy and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) selected L3Harris Technologies to provide an unmanned undersea vehicle for expeditionary undersea missions, particularly mine-sweeping.
The Next Generation Small-Class Maritime Expeditionary Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (MEMUUV) program took delivery for testing of one Iver4-900 UUV. Later will come two field-swappable modular payload sections to include real aperture and synthetic aperture sonars. Additional sensors, swappable battery chemistries, and data solutions all form part of the prototype system.
The Iver4 can detect, classify, localize, and identify targets on the ocean floor and in the water column in support of Expeditionary Mine Countermeasures (ExMCM), Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), and undersea search operations. The platform uses a series of sophisticated sensors to navigate the pre-programmed path while maintaining a constant height off the bottom, regardless of the water conditions. The Iver4 can reach a maximum depth of 300 meters.
L3Harris’s OceanServer subsidiary stated that the Iver4-900 platform has been custom-built for ExMCM and EOD. Its flexible payload, transportable package, extended endurance and high-performance accuracy represent a new iteration in small-class UUVs.
The Iver family of UUVs is man-portable and serves a range of military, commercial and research customers. Designed for coastal applications such as sensor development, general survey work, sub-surface security, research and environmental monitoring, they feature point-and-click mission planning. They can be launched and operated from shore.
L3Harris OceanServer has fielded more than 300 vehicles in the field and thousands of missions completed, in mine counter measures (MCM), hydrography, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), anti-sub warfare, survey and search and recovery.
