US Navy hires Leidos to design medium unmanned undersea vehicle

US Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) has hired science and technology company Leidos to design and build a medium-sized unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) under a contract worth approximately $358 million.

The subsea vehicle will support intelligence preparation of the operational environment by providing submarine-based autonomous oceanographic sensing and data collection for the US Navy.

It will also provide surface-launched and recovered mine countermeasures, Leidos said.

“Our decades of experience fielding unmanned technology coupled with our familiarity with the ever-changing needs of the fleet, enables us to provide this critical capability to our warfighters at speed and scale”, said Mike Rickels, Leidos’ senior vice president of C4ISR Solutions. “We look forward to building upon our long-standing relationship with the Navy and supporting their critical national security mission.”

The company will work with several partners to deliver this technology, including compatriot defence contractor L3Harris Technologies.