13 September 2019

DSEI 2019: General Dynamics launches new Bluefin-12 UUV

by Kate Tringham

General Dynamics Mission Systems displayed its Bluefin-12 lightweight medium-class unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) for the first time at the 2019 Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition in London.

Bluefin-12 forms part of a product refresh of the Bluefin family of UUVs, which is currently under way and follows on from the launch of the Bluefin-9 in 2018, Erik Schmidt, mechanical engineer II for Bluefin Robotics, a General Dynamics subsidiary, told Jane’s at the DSEI.

The General Dynamics Mission Systems Bluefin-12 lightweight medium-class UUV on display at DSEI in London. (Kate Tringham/IHS Markit)

“General Dynamics [GD] took over Bluefin Robotics three years ago, and at Bluefin we had a lot of legacy and obsolete components that we’d been dealing with for a long time,” he explained. “So, GD gave us the opportunity to really redesign these vehicles from the ground up and improve all the lessons learned over the years and really try to get it right.”

According to the company, the system has been built with robust core capabilities and features increased modularity, embedded intelligence, data processing, and an extended operational range.

The Bluefin-12 is 4.83 m long and 32 cm in diameter, with a dry weight of 250 kg.

Both the Bluefin-9 and Bluefin-12 share the same sensor and survey packages, including a Sonardyne Solstice 3000 multi-aperture sidescan sonar, a turbidity and fluorometer sensor, and a sound velocity sensor for temperature and pressure. The depth rating of both UUVs is also the same at 200 m. “The reason for that is that we try to keep as much in common between the two vehicles as we can, so that if you do own a system of vehicles you can interchange the batteries and so on,” Schmidt said.

General Dynamics Mission Systems displayed its Bluefin-12 lightweight medium-class unmanned underwat...

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