US Navy receives first Lionfish SUUVs from HII

The US Navy has taken delivery of the first two Lionfish small uncrewed undersea vehicles (SUUVs) from American shipbuilding company HII.

Lionfish is based on HII’s REMUS 300 platform, a modular, open-architecture SUUV engineered for multi-mission adaptability, and the program was developed in collaboration with the US Navy and Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), to accelerate the adoption of dual-use commercial technologies into US Department of Defense programs.

The program has been recognized as the US Navy’s first transition from another transaction prototype to full-scale production. The Lionfish SUUV is the first and only cyber-compliant uncrewed underwater vehicle.

 Lionfish is designed to address critical undersea warfare needs, including mine countermeasures, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), anti-submarine warfare, and electronic warfare

HII was awarded the US Navy’s Lionfish system program contract in 2023, and production of the Lionfish is underway at HII’s Uncrewed Systems facility in Pocasset. The program could scale to 200 vehicles, with a contract value exceeding $347 million.

“This delivery represents a key milestone in the Lionfish program,” said Duane Fotheringham, president of Mission Technologies’ Uncrewed Systems business group.

“The success and on-time delivery of Lionfish is the product of close collaboration between the government and industry team that will put a critical mine hunting capability in the hands of sailors and marines in an operationally relevant time frame.” 

In February this year, Uncrewed Systems, a business unit of HII’s Mission Technologies, tested the next-generation medium-class unmanned underwater vehicle (MUUV), the REMUS 620, on the US Navy’s confidence course.

According to HII, this is the first utilization of the US Navy’s confidence course by an industry-provided MUUV and highlights the partnership between the Unmanned Undersea Vehicles Group ONE (UUVGRU-1) and industry.