A couple of members of Congress announced the funding of a $9.9 million military construction project at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport (Rhode Island) April 9.
The appropriation will fund construction of an Unmanned Anti-Submarine Warfare Support Facility to support testing and evaluation operations on the Narragansett Range, an instrumented range for testing unmanned underwater vehicles, unmanned surface vehicles, swimmer delivery systems, payloads, torpedoes, targets, underwater surveillance, swimmer defense systems and undersea technologies.
This project will cover the design and construction to convert a World War II era building, originally built as a steam plant on the waterfront of Narragansett Bay, to meet current requirements.
"The new facility will provide state-of-the-art range operations, tracking and a display center for development of tactical concepts of operations for undersea warfare development systems and technologies," said Capt. Michael Byman, commander, NUWC Division Newport.
"It will also provide improved diver unit support facilities to accommodate requirements for operating both undersea and surface prototype vehicles on an integrated range."
The architectural and engineering design portion of the project was awarded March 6 to AECOM Services, Inc. of Roanoke, Va. Construction is expected to begin in May 2010 with building occupancy expected in November 2011.
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