Boeing, HII team up for Navy XLUUV competition

Boeing and Huntington Ingalls Industries recently announced they are teaming on design and production of an offering for the Navy's Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle competition.

Boeing is testing its Echo Voyager UUV off the coast of Southern California. The UUV could include a modular payload bay of up to 34 feet.

"This partnership provides the Navy a cost-effective, low-risk path to meet the emergent needs that prompted the Navy's Advanced Undersea Prototyping program," Darryl Davis, Boeing Phantom Works said in a company statement. "We are combining Boeing's preeminent UUV maritime engineering team with our nation's leading shipbuilder and Navy technical services company to get operational vehicles to the Navy years ahead of the standard acquisition process."

The Navy set aside $61.5 million in its fiscal year 2018 budget request for XLUUV prototyping. An XLUUV is categorized as a platform that is larger than 54 inches in diameter. The service will select two industry teams to design systems and will down select to one vendor for fabrication, according to budget documents.

"We look forward to a long relationship with Boeing as we embark together to field this unmanned force-multiplier for the Navy," Andy Green, executive vice president of Huntington Ingalls Industries and president of the company's Technical Solutions division said in the same statement. "I am confident this team will continue redefining the autonomy paradigm for UUVs."