Speaking of MIW

Speaking of mine warfare, from last Friday's contract list.

General Dynamics Advanced Informational Systems Inc., McLeansville, N.C., is being awarded a $48,606,916 contract with cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and firm-fixed-price line items for the engineering, manufacturing and development of the Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (SMCM UUV). The SMCM UUV system will provide the fleet mine warfare commander with enhanced mine-hunting capability. The SMCM UUV system will address the Navy's need to reliably detect and identify undersea volume and bottom mines in high-clutter environments and areas with potential for mine case burial. The SMCM UUV will also gather environmental data to provide intelligence support for other mine warfare systems. SMCM UUV system will be a part of the Littoral Combat Ship MCM mission package. This contract will also contain an option for the production of up to five low rate initial production systems. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the contract to $86,719,986. The contract will be initially funded with $10,119,000. Work will be performed in McLeansville, N.C. (38 percent), Quincy, Mass. (27 percent), Braintree, Mass. (16 percent), Houston, Texas (10 percent), Reston, Va. (5 percent), State College, Pa. (3 percent), and Fairfax, Va. (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by March 2016. Contract funds in the amount of $237,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitive procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with four offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, Panama City Beach, Fla., is the contracting activity (N61331-11-C-0017).

I'd be more impressed if the vehicles could deploy and lay mines as well. Has anyone seen the latest PPT of LCS mission modules? I for one would like to see what the current makeup of baseline 0 modules looks like these days. Noteworthy how LCS went from being exclusively PPT a few years ago to being a lot harder to find accurate, current information regarding.