General Dynamics Missions Systems Inc., a business unit of General Dynamics, has been awarded a $13,5 million contract modification for the Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (SMCM UUV) program, also known as Knifefish, the U.S. Department of Defense said Monday.

The exercised option on the previously awarded contract will cover exercise an option for engineering support for ongoing development, test and production of the Knifefish.

Work is expected to be completed by September 2021.

Knifefish medium-class mine countermeasure UUV designed to hunt for buried mines and mines in high clutter environments with high confidence and low false alarm rates.

The Knifefish system is part of the Littoral Combat Ship Mine Countermeasures Mission Package and can also be deployed from vessels of opportunity.

The General Dynamics’s website said Knifefish’s job is to detect, avoid and identify mine threats, reducing the risk to personnel by operating in the minefield as an off-board sensor while the host ship stays outside the minefield boundaries. Knifefish also gathers environmental data to provide intelligence support for other mine warfare systems.

The Knifefish UUV provides the mine warfare commander with enhanced mine-hunting capability by detecting, classifying and identifying both buried mines and mines in high clutter environments.