Navy to buy AUVs for underwater surveillance

New Delhi, Jul 11 (PTI) The Indian Navy is planning to
procure an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) with onboard
sonars and cameras for boosting its surveillance and
reconnaissance capabilities under the sea.
The Navy has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to
vendors and equipment manufacturers of AUVs and has mentioned
a requirement of 10 such vehicles, an Indian Navy officer told
PTI here Saturday.
It also hopes to acquire indigenous manufacturing
capability for AUVs and hence has placed conditions for
technology transfer under the 'make' category of the Defence
Procurement Procedure (DPP) of 2008 in the RFI.
"The Navy wants to buy these 10 AUVs and also build
capabilities to design, develop and manufacture these vehicles
in about three to four years time after awarding of contract,"
the officer said.
AUV is a non-tethered robotic device that is driven
through water by a propulsion system, controlled and piloted
by an onboard computer. The AUV has the capabilities to
manoeuvre in three dimension.
The vehicle would carry variable payloads such as high
definition sonars and underwater cameras for surveillance and
reconnaissance activities of the seabed such as Mine Counter
Measures (MCM) operations, Oceanographic surveys and
specialised mapping.
It has facilities onboard for recording data that could
be analysed subsequently. It can also be used for training
sonar operators and for launching small vehicles of less than
1.5-tonne weight.
The AUV can operate underwater up to depths of 500 metres
and for about seven to eight hours. PTI NCB
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