Navy awards Boeing $43 million contract modification for 4 XLUUV prototypes

The Navy yesterday awarded Boeing a $43 million contract modification to build four Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle prototypes.

"The Orca XLUUV will be modular in construction with the core vehicle providing guidance and control, navigation, autonomy, situational awareness, core communications, power distribution, energy and power, propulsion and maneuvering, and mission sensors," the announcement reads.

"The Orca XLUUV will have a modular payload bay, with defined interfaces to support current and future payloads for employment from the vehicle," it continues.

Inside Defense previously reported that the Navy would award the prototype contracts in early 2019, with delivery for the vehicles slated for fiscal years 2020 through 2022.

A Boeing-Huntington Ingalls team and Lockheed Martin each won design contracts for the XLUUV in September 2017.

President Trump's fiscal year 2019 budget asked for $117.86 million for the XLUUV program. In its report accompanying the FY-19 appropriations bill, the Senate suggested an additional $25 million to account for future prototype contracts.

Lawmakers ultimately appropriated $112.7 million for "advanced undersea prototyping," shifting $25 million from the Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle to the XLUUV.