The Naval Surface Warfare Center has awarded General Dynamics a $48 million dollar contract to develop a new, underwater mine detector.

The Navy has dubbed the project, the Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Underwater Vehicle.

The machine will eventually be able to pick out and identify sunken mines in areas with lots of clutter. Naval officials hope to build a fleet of the new vehicles. They’ll be launched from the new Littoral Combat Ships, which operate in shallow water. A contract option would give General Dynamics Advanced Informational Systems an order for the first five copies of the vehicle. GD will do most of the work at McLeansville, N.C.; Braintree, Mass. and Houston.

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