Boeing [BA] on Dec. 14 delivered its first Orca extra-large uncrewed undersea vehicle (XLUUV) to the Navy for continued testing that will provide lessons learned for the follow-on five prototype vessels the service will begin receiving in 2024.
The first Orca vehicle, XLEO, will help the Navy with risk reduction and operational lessons. The next vehicle, XLE1, which will have a larger payload capacity, is expected to be delivered in early 2024.
Boeing’s teammate on the 50-foot-plus autonomous, diesel-electric unmanned submarine is HII [HII]. The Orcas feature modular payloads and will support communications, mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. Boeing and the Navy announced the delivery on Wednesday.
In-water testing of the XLEO began in the spring near Boeing’s facilities in Huntington Beach, Calif., and included the first dive during the summer. Boeing and the Navy have been doing the testing in partnership.
“This has been a very busy year for the XLUUV team and their hard work is culminating in delivery of the Navy’s first-ever unmanned diesel-electric submarine,” Capt. Scot Searles, program manager of the Unmanned Maritime Systems (PMS 406) program office, said in a statement.
Boeing is on contract to deliver six Orcas, including XLE0. The company began the design and development in 2012 of Echo Voyager, a proof-of-concept XLUUV that began at-sea testing in 2017. Echo Voyager, which has compiled more than 10,000 hours operating at sea, including traveling hundreds of miles autonomously, led to a competition for the Orca XLUUV program.
“This is the culmination of more than a decade of pioneering work, developing a long-range, fully autonomous undersea vehicle with a large payload capacity that can operate completely independently of a host vehicle,” Ann Stevens, vice president of Maritime and Intelligence Systems at Boeing, said in a statement.
The Orcas are expected to operated autonomously for long, sustained operations.
Separately, the Navy on Wednesday also said it has completed a critical milestone in its Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (LUSV) program, successfully achieving a “no touch” 720-hour continuous power land-based demonstration of a diesel generator for USV operations.
The engine was built by
Caterpillar Inc. [CAT] and the testing was done by Bollinger Shipyards and Carter Machinery and was overseen by the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants and Capt. Searle’s office.
The Navy said the testing validated the 1550 kw Caterpillar 3512C model engine and its “mechanical reliability to support the requirements of an unmanned ship to operate for 30 days” without human intervention.
The successful engine test “allows the Navy to move forward with developing and acquiring the LUSV, specifically,” Capt. Kevin Smith, PEO Unmanned and Small Combatants, said in a statement.
The Navy expects the eventual LUSV to exceed 200-feet in length with a full load displacement of about 1,500 tons. The unmanned craft are projected to be low-cost and high-endurance with a modular payload capability. The vessels will also provide “adjunct missile magazine capacity to the Fleet as part of the Navy’s Distributed Maritime Operations concept,” the service said.
The Bollinger team is the first of six companies under LUSV conceptual design contracts to successfully complete the 720-hour no-touch electrical generation and distribution system demonstration, making the engine eligible for use on the LUSV program, the Navy said.
Austal USA, HII, Lockheed Martin, Fincantieri Marinette Marine, and Leidos’ [LDOS] Gibbs & Cox business unit also have LUSV conceptual design contracts that were awarded in 2020 to help with vessel requirements. The Navy said each of these teams are also in testing with their engine systems to meet the 720-hour performance requirement.