US defense technology major HII has revealed a new variant of the REMUS medium-class unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), the REMUS 620.
Building on the design philosophy of the REMUS 300, which was recently selected by the US Navy as the program of record for the Lionfish small UUV, the REMUS 620 has a battery life of up to 110 hours and a range of 275 nautical miles, providing mission capabilities for mine countermeasures, hydrographic surveys, intelligence collection, surveillance and electronic warfare.
“Retaining a forward strategic advantage requires the ability to deliver a multitude of effects from under the sea,” said Duane Fotheringham, president of Mission Technologies’ Unmanned Systems business group. “The REMUS 620 is the first medium UUV designed to accurately deliver this range of advanced above-and-below water effects at long range.”
Built to support current and next-generation naval and special operations forces operations, the UUV features a modular, open architecture design to facilitate seamless payload integration and HII’s Odyssey suite of autonomy solutions for intelligent, robotic platforms.
According to HII, REMUS 620 is the same size and weight of the first and only full-rate production medium UUVs: the MK 18 Mod 2, Littoral Battleship Sensing-Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (LBS-AUV) and LBS-Razorback systems operated by the US Navy’s Mine Countermeasure Squadrons, US Naval Oceanographic Office and Submarine Forces, respectively.
Multiple REMUS 620s operating collaboratively can be deployed from submarines, small manned or unmanned boats, amphibious ships, surface combatants and helicopters. The UUV can also be used as a platform to launch and operate other unmanned vehicles or payloads from beneath the sea.
