Newport News shipyard owner to lead Navy’s small underwater drone effort

The Navy picked Huntington Ingalls Industries’ REMUS 300 underwater drone to spearhead its acquisition program for its next generation of small, unmanned vessel.

The parent of Newport News Shipbuilding has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in unmanned vessels over the past two years, including opening a new manufacturing and testing center in Hampton.

The REMUS 300, built by its Hydroid subsidiary, is a 6-foot, roughly 100-pound drone that can dive to depths of more than 1,000 feet and run for up to 30 hours on its batteries. It’s been used for underwater surveying, search and rescue and fisheries management. REMUS drones’ first military use was in the Iraq war in 2003.

“HII is proud of our longstanding partnership with the U.S. Navy and now, to lead in this important direction on behalf of our customer,” said Chris Kastner, president and CEO.

Duane Fotheringham, president of the unmanned systems business group in HII’s Mission Technologies division, said drones for the new program will be built at first at Hydroid’s Massachusetts facility. But as demand for the REMUS 300s steps up, he said the Hampton operations also could be called on to build them.

The new underwater drone program, which the Navy calls Lionfish, follows the Mk18 Mod 1 Swordfish program, which also uses HII’s REMUS technology.

HII’s selection follows a two-year rapid prototyping effort involving multiple user evaluations and spiral developments to refine the REMUS 300 design.

Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, dress@dailypress.com