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18 MTR November 2006 Bluefin Robotics Corporation and QinetiQ announced the award of a $18 million contract from the U.S. Navy, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) to sup- port design, development, fabrication, and testing of surface mine countermeasures (SMCM) addressed by unmanned under- water vehicles (UUV). Work will be per- formed in Cambridge, Mass. and Winfrith, U.K., and is expected to be completed by February 2009. The proposed UUV System, which is the second increment of the SMCM/UUV pro- gram, will be comprised of two Bluefin-12 vehicles equipped with QinetiQ's synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) system. In fact, QinetiQ's share of the aforemen- tioned award is a three-year contract worth $7.7m from Bluefin Robotics Corporation to deliver synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) for use with Bluefin-12 unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). The SAS will ensure the Bluefin UUVs record high resolution seabed data images at high area coverage rates. This is the first multiple order for QinetiQ's SAS technolo- gy and a major breakthrough for the com- pany in this highly competitive area of the US defense market. QinetiQ's Group Managing Director for Defense and Technology, Andrew Sleigh, said: "The SAS system builds on our long- standing research in sonar technology and we are pleased to work with Bluefin to deliver advanced capabilities to the U.S. Navy. It complements our previous delivery of unmanned vehicles for mine counter- measures operations to the Royal Navy, a system that helped clear mines from a key strategic waterway in Iraq." "We are very excited about the award of this contract" said Dr. Brian Abraham, CEO of Bluefin. "This contract allows us to expand our support of NAVSEA, leveraging our experi- ence and leading edge technologies with the Littoral Combat Ship Program and to expand our corporate collaboration with QinetiQ." The Bluefin-12 vehicles will play a major role in enabling the Navy to prosecute sur- face mine countermeasures missions that support homeland security. Bluefin was previously awarded a $10,900,000 contract from NAVSEA in September of 2005 to provide the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program with Bluefin- 21 robotic platforms. QinetiQ and Bluefin worked together on a joint Ministry of Defense and Office of Naval Research project between 2003 and 2005 in which the team successfully designed, developed and demonstrated the 'Gambit' UUV with an advanced mine countermeasures SAS payload. Navy news Bluefin and QinetiQ Win $18m U.S. Navy Contract MTR#9 (17-32).qxd 11/13/2006 4:44 PM Page 18
