The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded American defense company Leidos a $8.5 million contract modification to continue supporting the tests of the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program.
Under the contract, Leidos will deliver its services during an extended testing phase.
Leidos has earlier been in charge of constructing the vessel which was built at Christensen Shipyard, Ltd in Vancouver, Washington.
ACTUV is an autonomous unmanned vessel designed to track quiet diesel-electric submarines for months at a time with minimal human input.
The vessel was christened on April 7, 2016 in Portland, Oregon after completing sea trials. ACTUV is currently conducting open-water testing off the coast of California with different mission systems and payloads.