A joint team from Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and the US Navy's Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport has successfully completed the first recovery of a Remus 620 unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) into a Virginia-class submarine torpedo tube and shutterway test fixture at Seneca Lake, New York.
An in-water test by the joint team confirmed the ability of the UUV to conduct complex autonomous navigational and communication protocols in safely docking with the shock and fire enclosure capsule (SAFECAP) loaded into a submerged Virginia-class submarine fixture.
HII said the UUV also successfully demonstrated reverse swimout launch and safe separation during this test period.
Earlier this year, the joint team had completed a test that confirmed the compatibility of the UUV with the weapons handling and torpedo tube systems of the Virginia-class submarines. This test served as a prerequisite for the in-water end-to-end launch and recovery demonstration at Seneca Lake.
In the earlier test, a Remus 620 UUV fitted with WHOI’s proprietary docking technology successfully completed a full end-to-end dry checkout of the SAFECAP "all-up round” in the navy's Virginia-class cradle payload integration facility and its Mark 71 torpedo tube.
