US military shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has delivered the first unit of its new series of compact unmanned underwater vehicles to an undisclosed US-allied nation on June 16.
Developed as the third generation of the previous line of vehicles, the system incorporates upgraded electronics, open-architecture interfaces, and increased payload flexibility.
The platform features a two-person-portable design that operates at depths of up to 100 metres and provides up to 10 hours of operational endurance.
To extend mission readiness, HII equipped the vessel with field-swappable batteries alongside its proprietary autonomous control software. The company stated this open-architecture software, currently used on platforms in more than 30 countries, is designed to support collaborative autonomy and sensor fusion.
The compact vehicle is built to perform a wide range of tasks, including offshore energy infrastructure inspection, search and rescue operations, mine countermeasures, and seabed mapping.
With this shipment, HII noted it has now delivered more than 750 autonomous maritime systems globally, including deployments with 14 NATO navies.
