US Navy Awards HII $347M Contract to Deliver Small Unmanned Undersea Vehicles

Virginia-based HII announced on Wednesday that it will support a U.S. Navy small unmanned undersea vehicle initiative under a potential five-year, $347 million contract.

Initially, the Mission Technologies division will construct nine SUUVs for the Lionfish System program, HII said.

The company is also expected to provide supplementary equipment and engineering services.

Lionfish is a two-person SUUV built with open architecture and portability. It is based on HII’s Remus 300, the Navy’s next-generation SUUV program of record. The contract allows the service branch to procure up to 200 undersea vehicles. 

Andy Green, HII executive vice president and a 4×24 member, said Lionfish offers interoperability and new capabilities to meet the Navy’s undersea priorities.

The Defense Innovation Unit worked with the Navy and HII to develop Lionfish.

In 2022, the company debuted Remus 620, a new model aimed at supporting the Navy’s intelligence gathering and electronic warfare efforts. HII recently received an order to deliver two Remus 620 vehicles to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.