New REMUS 620 UUV Debuted by HII for Long-Distance Navy Usage; Duane Fotheringham Quoted

A division of shipbuilding company HII has introduced a new unmanned underwater vehicle optimized for U.S. Navy deployment.

The REMUS 620 was constructed by HII Mission Technologies for duties such as intelligence gathering, mine protection, electronic warfare and hydrographic surveys, the McLean, Virginia-based business unit said Monday.

Duane Fotheringham, president of the unmanned systems group within Mission Technologies, explained that the UUV was developed to help support maintaining “a forward strategic advantage,” which the executive says necessitates undersea dominance and agility.

Fotheringham went on to comment that the REMUS 620 is the first medium-class UUV to be able to sustain cutting edge functionality over a long distance.

Powered by several high-capacity batteries, REMUS 620 can reportedly travel up to 275 nautical miles and run for 110 continuous hours. The machine can also tap into alternative energy sources.

REMUS 620’s payloads are also easily exchanged or modified to enable operation over multiple endeavors. The standard synthetic aperture sonar payloads are changeable for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, as well as cyber and electronic combat. This is made possible by the vehicle’s modular, open architecture layout.

The newly announced UUV is built to work in conjunction with other REMUS 620s and to send out and administer other unmanned vehicles or undersea-located payloads. When operating synchronously, the REMUS 620s are able to launch from submarines, small manned or unmanned boats, surface combatants, amphibious ships and helicopters.

According to HII Mission Technologies, the latest UUV draws on the experience and progress made by their prior REMUS 300, which has been tapped by the Navy for the Lionfish Small UUV. The company has been producing its REMUS line of systems for three decades.

The debut of the REMUTS 620 follows HII’s October demonstration to the Navy of the capabilities of Pharros, a prototype technology that launches and recovers large-diameter UUVs. This work was done under a cooperative research and development agreement from the Naval Surface Warfare Center.