The Lionfish small unmanned undersea vehicle (SUUV) developer, HII’s Unmanned Systems [HII], announced it successfully finished reviews leading into the start of full-rate production on the vehicle to be used for mine countermeasures and ocean survey missions.
In an Oct. 8
LinkedIn announcement, HII said the Lionfish UUV successfully finished the test readiness and production readiness reviews, which marks the start of full rate production.
“The Lionfish program demonstrates the power of leveraging commercial technology to solve operational challenges at speed and scale. This milestone not only represents a technical achievement, but also our dedication to equipping our forces with the most advanced tools in record time,” Duane Fotheringham, president of HII Mission Technologies’ Unmanned Systems business group, said in a statement.
These milestones come about a year after the Navy awarded HII a contract potentially worth up to $347 million to build nine Lionfish SUUVs, but it includes options for work to last through September 2028 and could increase the numbers to up to 200 vehicles (Defense Daily, Oct. 11, 2023).
The Navy first selected HII to build the Lionfish in 2022 (Defense Daily, March 21, 2022).
The Navy plans to use the Lionfish to replace the Mk 18 Mod 1 Swordfish UUV for mine countermeasures and ocean survey missions because the older vehicle has maxed out its capacity in computer power.
The Swordfish is based on the HII Remus 100 vehicles and the Lionfish is based on the newer Remus 300.
The Remus 300, with various payload options, is a two-person portable SUUV that can weigh up to 150 pounds, can be 75 to 99 inches long and have a 29 to 89 nautical mile maximum range.