Navy to buy AUVs for underwater surveillance

The 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, a Navy officer said in New Delhi.

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.