U.S. Navy likely to buy ‘Smarttrak’ submarine cable tracker from Innovatum

The U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command has issued a solicitation for a small business set-aside contract for a Smarttrak Plus passive magnetic submarine cable tracker, or its equivalent, which can locate, track and measure underwater pipelines, cables, weapons, wrecks and archaeological remains.

The Smarttrak is produced by Innovatum Ltd., a company based in Bury St. Edmunds, England.

The Smarttrak consists of three major elements: the sensor array, the subsea electronics package (known as the Sensor Interface Pod) and the surface computer workstation, explains Innovatum, on its Web site.

“It offers passive magnetic, active AC and active DC tracking techniques in a single unit allowing the user to change modes at the push of a button rather than a lengthy re-configuration,” says the company.

The Military Sealift Command, which released its solicitation on March 19, identified the following “salient characteristics” of the system it wants to procure:

• Includes a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) which is controlled from a ship;
• Operates at depths up to 3,000 meters;
• Can be used to monitor and measure submarine cable installations;
• Must include all software, computers and interface equipment.

Interested prospective vendors are asked to respond to the solicitation by March 21.

Further information is available from Timothy Lewis, of the U.S. Navy, at timothy.lewis6@navy.mil.