Bluefin Robotics, the leading provider of free-flooded, modular Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and related technologies announced today that the company has sold a Bluefin-21 system to US-based Phoenix International Holdings (Phoenix), an experienced marine services contractor which provides underwater engineering and operational solutions, including deep ocean search and recovery operations, to customers around the globe.

Among many other successes, Phoenix is accredited with recovering both flight recorders from Air France 447.

Bluefin will deliver an off-the-shelf 1,500m depth-rated Bluefin-21 AUV system to meet several immediate requirements, and upgrade the system to a depth rating of 4,500m during its next availability — a testament to the system’s design flexibility and modularity.

The system boasts Bluefin’s field-swappable batteries, a top-tier integrated inertial navigation solution with Doppler and acoustic baseline aiding, and a state-of-the-art survey payload suite including side scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler, multibeam echosounder and a digital camera. Bluefin’s intuitive user software interface, the Operator Tool Suite, will also be provided for mission planning, mission monitoring and post-mission analysis.