The Defense Department in its 2015 Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) officially rang the death knell for Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Remote Minehunting System (RMS), a mine detecting semi-submersible that was originally planned to be deployed from the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).
According to the report, the planned quantities to be purchased have decreased from anywhere between 44 to 54 units total to the 10 already delivered. Cancelling the program saves the department $750 million, a senior defense official said March 24. However, due to the cost of those 10 units, the program technically ends with a Nunn-McCurdy breach.
In February, Defense Daily learned the Navy would not go forward with a second round of RMS low rate initial production (LRIP 2). Instead, the service would upgrade the vehicle portion of the Lockheed Martin system, called the Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle, in preparation for a “swim off” with other unmanned minehunting platforms that could replace it (Defense Daily, Feb. 23).
The senior department official said the cancellation of the program reflects the poor reliability of the RMMV, not the AN/AQS-20A sonar, which it tows to detect bottom and moored mines. The Raytheon [RTN] sonar may still be used in the future as the Navy continues to have a minehunting requirement.
The service is considering other platforms such as the General Dynamics [GD] Knifefish unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) and the Textron [TXT] common unmanned surface vehicle to tow the sonar, it has said.
Navy officials have said that RMS performed well when it was available but had consistent reliability issues. During a technical evaluation last summer aboard the USS Independence (LCS 2), the system operated for an average of less than 16 hours between failures, falling short of its 75 hour requirement, according to the 2015 report from the director of operational test and evaluation (DOT&E). Sometimes after breaking down, the vehicle had to be towed to port and then transported back to the ship.
After that round of testing, the top two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I), pressed the service to consider other options for the minehunting requirement. The Navy announced in October that it had chartered an independent review charged with assessing the program and making recommendations about whether procurement should continue.