AEVEX reports $41.6m Navy awards for unmanned mine-countermeasure payloads

AEVEX announced on 30 October that the US Navy's Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Robotic and Autonomous Systems awarded it two contracts worth a combined $41.6 million for mine-countermeasure systems. The company assigns $15.6 million to production and operation of SightGlass and $26 million to production and operation of Fisher. AEVEX says the awards followed a Defense Innovation Unit mine-countermeasures prize challenge and Navy evaluation. No corresponding Navy award notice was reviewed for this report, so the contract details and reported test outcome remain supplier-attributed.

What the two payloads do

SightGlass is described as a modular mine-hunting and identification payload for the Navy's Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) fleet and AEVEX's Lynx and proposed Chaser small uncrewed surface vessels. Fisher is described as a modular mine reacquisition and neutralisation payload for Lynx and Chaser, developed with VideoRay. These are complementary functions: finding and identifying a suspected mine does not itself clear it. AEVEX says paired Lynx craft are designed to work through those stages together. The release does not identify which combinations have been demonstrated in a representative minefield or how many new payload sets have been ordered.

Programme status

AEVEX describes GARC vessels as already delivered and fielded, and says it has supplied 325 to the Navy. That existing vessel count should not be read as 325 SightGlass or Fisher installations. The two new awards support production, fielding and operation of payload systems, but the announcement gives no delivery schedule, unit allocation, completed deployment count or independently measured clearance performance. Future Navy records could establish those points and distinguish GARC upgrades from payload integration on newer Lynx and Chaser craft.

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