General Dynamics Mission Systems, Inc.
"Be the backbone for the front lines"
US General Dynamics business unit whose Bluefin Robotics line builds Bluefin-9/-12/-21 UUVs and the Knifefish mine countermeasure UUV for the US Navy.
General Dynamics Mission Systems, Inc. (GDMS) is a business unit of General Dynamics Corporation that designs and builds electronics, communications and control systems for land vehicles, ships, submarines, aircraft and spacecraft. It was formed on January 1, 2015, when General Dynamics combined its Advanced Information Systems and C4 Systems businesses. The company lists its mailing address in Chantilly, Virginia, and states that it employs more than 12,000 people worldwide. In the marine robotics field, GDMS is best known as the owner of Bluefin Robotics, one of the longest-established makers of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).
Bluefin Robotics was founded in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1997 by two MIT engineers as a spin-out from MIT. Its early work included a U.S. Navy contract for the Battlespace Preparation Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (BPAUV). General Dynamics Mission Systems acquired Bluefin in 2016 and placed it in its Maritime and Strategic Systems line of business. The Quincy team still designs, develops and tests UUVs for defense, commercial and scientific customers. GDMS says the Bluefin family uses modular, free-flooded, open-architecture vehicles and that it has integrated more than 100 sensors and payloads across the product line. UUV and Knifefish manufacturing, assembly and testing was later moved into a 20,000 sq ft UUV Center of Excellence inside the company's 500,000 sq ft plant in Taunton, Massachusetts, which also produces batteries for Knifefish and other Bluefin vehicles.
The current vehicle line covers three size classes. The Bluefin-9 is a compact UUV weighing 70 kg (155 lb) with a 241.8 cm length, a 200 m depth rating, about 8 hours of endurance at 3 knots and sustained speeds up to 6 knots; standard payloads include side scan sonar with full-swath bathymetry, an HD machine-vision camera and sound-velocity, turbidity and fluorometry sensors. The Bluefin-12 is a lightweight medium-class UUV, 32 cm in diameter and 4.83 m long, weighing 250 kg with its integrated survey package. It is rated to 200 m, runs 24 hours at 3 knots or 36 hours at 2 knots, and is powered by four swappable 1.9 kWh lithium-ion batteries. Integrated options include the Sonardyne Solstice 3000 multi-aperture sonar and a removable data storage module with camera. The heavyweight Bluefin-21 is 53 cm in diameter, 4.93 m long and 750 kg dry, rated to 4,500 m, with 25 hours of endurance at 3 knots and a top speed of 4.5 knots. Its standard payloads are an EdgeTech 2200-M side scan sonar, an EdgeTech DW-216 sub-bottom profiler and a Reson 7125 multibeam echosounder. In 2014 a Bluefin-21 searched the Indian Ocean seabed at depths of roughly 4,000 to 4,500 m for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. In 2020 a Bluefin-21 variant operated under sea ice during the U.S. Navy ICEX exercise to demonstrate navigation technology developed with MIT.
All Bluefin vehicles share the Operator Tool Suite (Mission Planner and Dashboard). Bluefin TOPICS adds Iridium over-the-horizon and acoustic communications, and Bluefin Witness processes imagery on board and sends clips to operators during a mission. GDMS also offers 5-to-10-day operator training at its Quincy facility, technical support and custom service agreements.
The flagship defense program is Knifefish, a medium-class, battery-powered surface mine countermeasure (SMCM) UUV derived from the Bluefin-21. It carries a low-frequency broadband sonar to detect and classify bottom and buried mines in cluttered environments. It deploys from the Littoral Combat Ship mine countermeasures mission package and other Navy vessels, so the host ship can stay outside the minefield. Low-rate initial production of Block 0 began in 2019, and in 2021 Naval Sea Systems Command awarded a USD 72.8 million contract to retrofit the five LRIP systems to the Block I configuration. The Navy has planned a buy of 30 systems, each with two vehicles. Internationally, the Royal Australian Navy selected four Bluefin-9 and three Bluefin-12 vehicles in 2019 under Project Sea 1778 Phase 1, with Thales Australia as a partner. In July 2026 the Navy exercised a USD 14.3 million option for MEDUSA (Mining Expendable Delivery Unmanned Submarine Asset), a submarine-launched expendable UUV for offensive mining that builds on the Bluefin platforms. Work on MEDUSA is carried out in Quincy and Taunton.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
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Contact General Dynamics Mission Systems, Inc.
WEBSITE
https://gdmissionsystems.com/PHONE
+1 877-449-0600HEADQUARTERS
United States
Company Facts
Founded
2015
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
North America
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
Subsidiary / Acquired
Funding Total
-
