System Will Allow Unmanned Navy Craft to be Refueled
Michigan Aerospace Corporation (MAC), an advanced engineering and products company, today announced that it has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract by the US Navy. The project, called Autonomous Watercraft Docking and Refueling Architecture (AWDRA), will allow the growing fleet of Navy unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) to be refuelled by other USVs rather than requiring them to be tended by manned naval vessels; this will free personnel for other tasks and remove them from potentially dangerous situations while increasing mission efficiency and efficacy. The project, which expands MAC’s work with Navy offboard vehicle handling (like the ongoing Stern Ramp Interface System (SRIS) project for the Littoral Combat Ship program), will be led by Anthony Hays, leader of MAC’s Mechanical Systems Business Unit.