The Orca is an

autonomous underwater vehicle An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a robot that travels underwater without requiring continuous input from an operator. AUVs constitute part of a larger group of undersea systems known as unmanned underwater vehicles, a classification tha ...

(AUV) that is under development by

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

and

Huntington Ingalls Industries Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. (HII) is the largest military shipbuilding company in the United States as well as a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. HII, ranked No. 375 on the Fortune 500, was formed ...

(HII) for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

. The Orca dates back to September 2017, when the Navy issued contracts worth about US$40 million each to Boeing, which had partnered earlier in the year with HII to build uncrewed submarines, and

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

to develop competing designs for an extra-large unmanned undersea vehicle (XLUUV) capable of autonomous operation on missions up to several months in duration. In February 2019, the Navy awarded the Boeing/HII consortium a $43 million contract to begin work on building four of their XLUUVs, the design of which would be based on Boeing's earlier AUV '' Echo Voyager''. The following month, the Navy added a fifth vehicle to the order, with the total value of the contract reaching $274.4 million. Orca deliveries were planned to be completed by the end of 2022. The Navy took delivery of the first Orca in December, 2023. The basic Orca design shares a length with ''Echo Voyager'', but the Orca will incorporate a more modular construction, primarily for the capability to be built with an additional payload module of up to long and a capacity of for a total length of . The Navy specified the ability to adapt the Orca platform according to mission, with the ability for surveillance, submerged, surface, and electronic combat, and minesweeping. The vessel will be powered by a hybrid diesel/

lithium-ion battery A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, energ ...

system, which powers the Orca by battery while submerged and recharges the batteries with diesel generators while surfaced. Maximum speed is , though the typical service speed is about , which gives the Orca a range of up to with an endurance of several months.

Notes

References

{{Boeing AUVs Robotic submarines Proposed ships of the United States Navy

See also

Notes

References