Imagine a remake of the 1990 film “The Hunt for Red October” with a submarine run by a computer instead of Sean Connery. Or overhauling 2000’s “U-571” with a vessel that relies on artificial intelligence rather than Matthew McConaughey.
The results might be pure fantasy, but they offer a glimpse into a potential reality that grew more likely when Boeing, a defense contractor better known for planes than shipbuilding, won a $43 million Navy contract this month to develop four extra-large unmanned undersea vehicles.
Known as Orcas, they’re basically drone submarines and will include developments from the Echo Voyager, a commercial prototype built by Boeing for longer endurance and higher payload capacity.
Measuring 50 feet in length, the diesel-electric craft would have a 6,500-mile range and “could hunt subs and ships and conduct surveillance,” based on the Navy’s description, said Roman Schweizer, an analyst with Cowen Washington Research Group. “It could turn into a watershed moment for the Navy.”
The Orcas belong to a class of vessels designated XLUUVs, an acronym for extra-large unmanned underwater vehicles, that have a diameter of seven feet or more, compared with lighter classes as tiny as 12.75 inches, and mark the latest expansion of U.S. Navy drones envisioned in a master plan as long ago as 1994 under the Clinton administration.
President Trump requested $117.9 million for the vessels in his 2019 budget, which included higher spending on a variety of military projects in a push to strengthen national security.
It’s notable, Schweizer said, that an aerospace company won the program, and even more significant given awards of drone contracts to conglomerates such as Textron and Leidos.
“They’re not traditional shipbuilders,” he explained, “but then again, these aren’t large ships and submarines. If these unmanned programs are successful, it could mark a shift within the industrial base. We’re not suggesting an end to large, expensive ships and submarines at all, but it could create new budget, force structure and market dynamics within the shipbuilding sector.”
As for Boeing, the company may have become a household name for commercial jets like the single-aisle 737 and the U.S. president’s jumbo liner known as Air Force One, but it also has significant experience with seafaring craft.
The company has designed and operated deep-sea systems since the 1960s, said spokeswoman Mary McAdam.
“We are leveraging this expertise to improve the safety and reliability of autonomous technologies like the Orca,” she said.
While the Navy wouldn’t specify how the Orca might be deployed, a master-plan update during George W. Bush’s presidency described drone submarines as force multipliers that could handle tasks from finding and destroying underwater mines to surveillance and fighting other submarines.
“Maintaining the readiness of our naval forces is key to maintaining the scope and scale of operations demanded of them,” Sean Stackley, then-acting Secretary of the Navy told a Senate subcommittee during a May 2017 budget pitch that described plans for extra-large underwater drones. “Our adversaries are pursuing advanced weapon systems at a level and pace of development not seen since the mid-1980s.
