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US Navy Photo by Lt. Dustin Lawson
- The US Navy wants to mix uncrewed underwater vehicles into its submarine forces.
- A commander said it's taking a "SpaceX approach" to testing, getting systems out quickly to see what works.
- The submarine Delaware is deployed with an HII-made Remus UUV 600 in Europe for testing.
The US Navy has been putting new underwater drone technology to work alongside its submarines, using what a sub commander called the "SpaceX approach" to develop this technology.
The focus is getting the system out there with the crews that will be using it, prompting feedback and further iterations.
At a Hudson Institute panel last week, Submarine Forces Commander Vice Adm. Robert Gaucher spoke to ongoing efforts to integrate uncrewed underwater vehicles into the service.
He said that the possibilities for how uncrewed vehicles can assist the service are endless. He highlighted how work with Virginia-class submarines has led to new developments in where and how the force can operate, stay hidden, and gather intelligence.
UUVs can extend the range at which the Navy can conduct missions. Their varying capabilities for surveillance, as well as their smaller size, mean that the Navy can deploy them to places that may be difficult to reach with other assets. They are also attritable compared to more expensive submarines. There is potential in this tech, making fielding it of growing importance.
There are challenges in this, but the Navy has seen success, particularly during the ongoing deployment of the Virginia-class submarine USS Delaware in Europe. Gaucher said that the submarine had operated alongside a Huntington Ingalls Industries-made Remus UUV 600 in a Norwegian fjord for testing.
HII's Remus drones come with a variety of depths, mission durations, and speeds. They've seen commercial applications for ocean exploration and research.
Gaucher said that the Navy's approach is similar to the way Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, approaches rapid iterative development.
"We're taking, you know, I'll call [it] a SpaceX approach to, 'Hey, get it out there and operate,' because what we find is we learn a lot more when we get it in the crew's hands," Gaucher said during the Hudson event. There have been some adjustments to the Remus, and the plan is to repeat the process, refining the capability.
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US Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist America A. Henry/Released
Gaucher said that a few vessels deployed in the Indo-Pacific region will have some versions of Remus UUV as well.
SpaceX, a leading space exploration company, is known for its rapid and iterative approach to design, accepting that the technology may experience issues that can be worked out through testing. The process is a feedback-driven process for quick design improvements.
The company has broken various records, including the most number of launches of a single rocket in one year. It's also led to some road bumps, like multiple explosions and failed tests.
The approach takes a workable prototype and lets user feedback shape design over multiple iterations. The military has increasingly looked in this direction, which isn't unique to SpaceX, to fuel effective testing and development.
This isn't the first lesson the Navy's taken from tech companies. The service built an underwater testing course near Keyport, Washington, to run UUVs. Gaucher said it's similar to Google's fake city in California dedicated to testing self-driving vehicles.
Since July 2024, the Navy's run almost 60 underwater drones on it, he added.
UUVs are a priority for the Navy as it looks at how to implement emerging uncrewed systems into traditional crewed operations and missions. The US and NATO allies will experiment with underwater drones in their upcoming Dynamic Messenger exercise in September. Dynamic Messenger is a relatively new exercise focused on that technology.
HII's Duane Fotheringham, the president of uncrewed systems for the company's Mission Technologies Development Division, said that being able to quickly upgrade UUVs like the Remus is critical to continuing to make improvements, with the vehicle payloads, energy sources, and propulsion all capable of being swapped out.