The US Navy issued sources sought notice on July 10 to find businesses that can potentially design, manufacture, assemble, test and deliver the upgraded COBRA Block II mine detection system.
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An MQ-8B Fire Scout conducts low-light conditional development testing with the AN/DVS-1 Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis (COBRA) at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. (Picture source: U.S. Navy)
COBRA provides the detection capability for the U.S. Navy’s Assault Breaching System of Systems. COBRA’s mission is to conduct unmanned, aerial tactical reconnaissance in the littoral battlespace for the detection and localization of individual Mine-Like Objects (MLOs), Minefields (MFD), Minelines (ML) and obstacles in the Surf Zone (SZ) and Beach Zone (BZ); for the detection and localization of surface and near-surface MLOs in Very Shallow Water (VSW); and for the detection and localization of surface and near-surface MLOs (moored or drifting) in Shallow Water (SW) through Deep Water (DW) in the day or night.
COBRA is an evolutionary acquisition program and introduces new capabilities through ‘Blocks’. COBRA Block I is currently fielded to the Helicopter Sea Combat squadrons conducting Mine Countermeasures (MCM) operations and provides daytime MFD, ML and obstacle detection and multispectral imagery collection of the BZ and limited SZ from a MQ-8B Fire Scout.
The COBRA Block II system increases capability beyond that of the Block I requirements and enhances surface and near-surface daytime and nighttime individual MLO (moored and drifting), MFD, ML and obstacle detection and imagery collection from the SZ through DW in a single pass at a high area coverage rate. Employing on an MQ-8C Fire Scout, COBRA Block II enables operators and other personnel to remain at a safe distance from the mine and obstacle belts and enemy direct and indirect fire. COBRA is part of the Navy’s MCM Mission Package for Littoral Combat Ships and other potential vessels of opportunity.
Currently, imagery collected by COBRA system is retrieved and processed at a COBRA Post Mission Analysis (PMA) Station. The processed information, transferred to the Mine Warfare Environmental Decision Aids Library (MEDAL) MINEnet Tactical application for MCM analysis, is ultimately distributed through legacy command, control (C2) applications, and transitioned to Joint Command and Control Capabilities (JC2C). COBRA Block II seeks to reduce the current mission planning timeline and PMA processes, where possible, to near real-time.
