Boeing Orca Extra-Large Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV)

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The U.S. Navy has awarded a contract to Boeing for four Extra-Large Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (XLUUVs). In other words: giant drone subs.

The unmanned submarines, called Orcas, will be able to undertake missions from scouting to sinking ships at very long ranges. Drone ships like the Orca will revolutionize war at sea, providing inexpensive, semi-disposable weapon systems that can fill the gaps in the front line—or simply go where it’s too dangerous for manned ships to go.

The contract, announced today, stipulates Boeing will get $43 million for “fabrication, test, and delivery of four Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (XLUUVs) and associated support elements.” That’s just over ten million bucks per boat.
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https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a26344025/navy-extra-large-unmanned-submarines-boeing/
 
news.usni.org

Report to Congress on Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles - USNI News

The following is the June 25, 2019 Congressional Research Service Report, Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles: Background and Issues for Congress. From the report The Navy wants to develop and procure three new types of unmanned vehicles (UVs) in FY2020 and beyond—Large Unmanned...
news.usni.org news.usni.org

The XLUUV program, also known as Orca, was established to address a Joint Emergent Operational Need (JEON). The Navy wants to procure nine XLUUVs in FY2020-FY2024. The Navy announced on February 13, 2019, that it had selected Boeing to fabricate, test, and deliver the first four Orca XLUUVs and associated support elements. On March 27, 2019, the Navy announced that the award to Boeing had been expanded to include the fifth Orca.
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1586803052194-png.630925

 
Boeing graphic

ORIGINAL CAPTION: Boeing’s concept for their ORCA Extra-Large
Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV)

Grey Havoc said:
bobbymike said:
breakingdefense.com

SASC Trims Hypersonics & Robot Ships, Boosts Ships & F-35 - Breaking Defense

Skeptical senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee want to slow down bleeding-edge prototypes, while building up more traditional weapons.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com
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Robot Ships & Submarines

Congress and the Pentagon are deeply at odds over the future of the fleet. The Navy, backed by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, sees robotic vessels as crucial adjuncts to larger manned warships, with unmanned surface and underwater vehicles (USVs and UUVs) serving as relatively expendable scouts, decoys, and missile launchers. Congress, however, remains deeply committed to traditional shipyards and President Trump’s campaign promise of 355 (manned) ships. There’s fear on Capitol Hill. that the Navy may be moving too fast towards full-up prototypes before working out technical basics, like how to keep ships running with no maintenance crew aboard and how to retain human control of lethal weapons from a long way away.

Both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have passed language limiting the robo-boat programs. SASC forbids the Navy from spending 2021 appropriations on the Medium USV, Large USV, Large Displacement UUV, or Extra-Large UUV until it can show their “‘critical mission, hull, mechanical, and electrical sub-systems’’ will work well. The HASC language specifically says the LUSV must function 30 days without human maintainers; SASC sets a 45-day (1,080-hour) threshold for both LUSV and MUSV.

We haven’t seen HASC’s funding tables yet, so we don’t know if the House committee wants to cut these programs. But the Senate funding tables cut them by over $548 million (and authorizers do have the power to limit spending):

  • Prototyping for Medium and Large USVs is cut entirely, with SASC rejecting the entire $464 million request as “excess procurement ahead of satisfactory testing.”
  • Prototyping for Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles is cut nearly in half, losing $36 million out of a $78 million request, again as “excess procurement ahead of…. testing.”
  • Prototyping specifically for the XLUUV (aka the Boeing Orca) and the LDUUV (aka Snakehead) are each cut $10 million (out of an unspecified total) for having an “uncertified test strategy.”
  • Even the relatively small and modest Barracuda mine-hunting UUV prototype is cut $28 million for an unspecified “program delay.”
On the upside, SASC would add $115 million for “advanced surface machinery” to help unmanned surface vessels operate without human maintainers: $45 million for “USV autonomy” and $70 million for “engine and generator qualification testing.” That partially offsets the cuts above – but in a way that makes it very clear the Senate wants the Navy to get the basics right before putting prototypes to sea.
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Grey Havoc said:
www.defensenews.com

Huntington Ingalls bullish on unmanned growth

America’s largest military shipbuilder, Huntington Ingalls Industries, is known for for aircraft carriers and big deck amphibious ships, but its corporate strategy is sighted in on much smaller platforms.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com
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In January, HII completed the first phase of its Unmanned Systems Center of Excellence with the construction of a 22,000-square-foot facility in Hampton, Virginia. The center will host the assembly of hull structures for Boeing’s Orca for the Navy’s Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle program. A second building for unmanned systems prototyping, production and testing is scheduled to be built by year’s end.

The company disclosed Thursday that about 75 percent of all the Orca’s structural components have been fabricated and that final delivery to Boeing is set for later this year.
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It's been said the Orca program is attempting to produce an UUV capable of ASW and anti-surface warfare roles.

I've never seen it explicitly stated it will carry weapons but given the roles It's being looked at for, it's a good guess it will eventually carry weapons.
 
Jimmo952 said:
It's been said the Orca program is attempting to produce an UUV capable of ASW and anti-surface warfare roles.

I've never seen it explicitly stated it will carry weapons but given the roles It's being looked at for, it's a good guess it will eventually carry weapons.
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I suspect one of its first roles will be to emplace mines and offboard sensors. That doesn't take a very clever AI; that is mostly just having a list of depth/locations and being able to self navigate. The Clandestinely Deployed Mine is supposed to have about reached IOC right now; that would be a good initial candidate. There probably are various classified Seaweb related sensors as well. In the future there will be the CAPTOR replacement mines. Actually directly engaging another ship or sub is I think a long way off, but being able to lay sensors and mine fields in very shallow water takes that high risk mission off of manned boats which are too large and valuable to be doing that kind of work. It looks like an Orca is going to cost about ~1% of a Virginia; it's practically a disposable wartime asset at that price.
 
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May I inquire exactly why my crosspost on an apparent Chinese counterpart program to the Orca was just deleted? I wouldn't have thought that was off topic?
 
Grey Havoc said:
May I inquire exactly why my crosspost on an apparent Chinese counterpart program to the Orca was just deleted? I wouldn't have thought that was off topic?
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Because this thread is about US developments not Chinese. As you already acknowledge, there is a separate thread on the Chinese ones which you already posted into. No need to double up.
 
Large UUV to be forward-deployed by fiscal year 2026, Navy official confirms

April 04, 2023

SEA-AIR-SPACE 2023--NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. The U.S. Navy's 85-foot uncrewed submarine -- the Orca extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle (XLUUV) -- is now scheduled to be forward-deployed by fiscal 2026, a Navy unmanned systems program manager told attendees of the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space symposium on Tuesday.

Capt. Scot Searles, program manager for unmanned maritime systems at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), said that while the program is still contending with supply-chain issues, the first Orca XLUUV is actually in test mode ahead of fielding in the next three years. "We've got the first vehicle complete -- it's in the water," Searles said. "We're [conducting] testing, the initial results are good."

The Navy plans to deploy five of the large submarines to conduct dangerous mine-clearing responsibilities in the undersea domain. The program has been dogged by significant schedule delays and cost increases, however.

A September 2022 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the program was three years behind schedule and $242 million (64%) over budget. Despite the Navy identifying the robotic subs as an urgent need -- meaning that the solution should be delivered within two years -- the sea service "didn't require the contractor to demonstrate that it was ready to build the subs within the planned cost and schedule," and seven years later the Navy is still without any subs that meet requirements, the GAO stated.

The original plan was to deliver the first vehicle by December 2020 and all five vehicles by the end of calendar year 2022, but now the Navy and contractor Boeing expect to deliver the five vehicles between February and June 2024, the GAO added.

Searles acknowledged that the program has had its challenges, blaming supply-chain difficulties -- and the fact that this program is the first of its kind -- for many of the setbacks.

"It's the first time we're doing this," he said. "It takes a while to work through [the challenges]. We feel like we've reached an inflection point [with] technical challenges solved. The supply-chain issues out there that everyone's seen, we're seeing that as well."

He said the program has 90% of the material it needs, with the remaining 10% affected by supply chain issues. Searles stated that since the program does have its first vehicle under test, and because supply-chain delays are at 12 weeks (rather than counted in years), the program may have turned a corner. "We're now in a very tactical mode," he said. "Our plan is to be forward-deployed by fiscal year '26."

militaryembedded.com

Large UUV to be forward-deployed by fiscal year 2026, Navy official confirms - Military Embedded Systems

SEA-AIR-SPACE 2023--NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. The U.S. Navy's 85-foot uncrewed submarine -- the Orca extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle (XLUUV) -- is now scheduled to be forward-deployed by fiscal 2026, a Navy unmanned systems program manager told attendees of the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space...
militaryembedded.com militaryembedded.com
 
This is the delivery of the first article? I didn't realize the schedule had slipped that far. I really hope Boing! can unscrew itself for this project; I think it is rather a rather crucial access denial technology.
 
Josh_TN said:
This is the delivery of the first article? I didn't realize the schedule had slipped that far. I really hope Boing! can unscrew itself for this project; I think it is rather a rather crucial access denial technology.
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The challenge with UUVs is communications and control. I'm still not aware of any covert underwater comms system.
 
Scott Kenny said:
The challenge with UUVs is communications and control. I'm still not aware of any covert underwater comms system.
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There have been experiments with remotely emplaced repeaters with acoustic modems and satellite radio gateway buoys for decades. The original efforts were labeled “SeaWeb” run by SPAWAR. I believe the USN has likely fielded some remote sensors that employ them by now. It seems likely TRAPS does. The CDM increment II mine is supposed to allow for remote activation. The new Hammerhead CAPTOR is also depicted as having a communication module. I think deployable semi persistent acoustic communication networks with sensors and effectors networked in are likely already a thing.
 
Josh_TN said:
There have been experiments with remotely emplaced repeaters with acoustic modems and satellite radio gateway buoys for decades. The original efforts were labeled “SeaWeb” run by SPAWAR. I believe the USN has likely fielded some remote sensors that employ them by now. It seems likely TRAPS does. The CDM increment II mine is supposed to allow for remote activation. The new Hammerhead CAPTOR is also depicted as having a communication module. I think deployable semi persistent acoustic communication networks with sensors and effectors networked in are likely already a thing.
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I'm not questioning that. I'm questioning how covert those underwater links are.

With a minefield, you're okay with an obvious arming signal, because that acts as the "warning! mines!" sign. An obvious disarming signal is also acceptable, assuming that the contents of the signal are encrypted.
 
I assume a submarine could hear the activity of an active acoustic communication. But what would they do about it? Also I presume that such networks are undeployed or silent in peacetime and that most active communications are a war reserve mode.
 
Josh_TN said:
I assume a submarine could hear the activity of an active acoustic communication. But what would they do about it? Also I presume that such networks are undeployed or silent in peacetime and that most active communications are a war reserve mode.
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If that XLUUV is emitting active sonar to talk to the controller, even an acoustic modem, you can track the location of at least the XLUUV if not the controller. And that means that the one advantage of a submarine is gone.

Submarines are stealth fighters, if they break stealth they're dead.



Josh_TN said:
But what would they do about it?
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A sub could send a message to an MPA to drop some torpedoes over at (location of XLUUV or mothersub). Or to a friendly surface ship to throw an ASROC that way.

The Russians and Chinese subs have a SUBROC/ASROC equivalent, they can fire on that location and leave very little reaction time to either XLUUV or mothership.

The US/NATO really needs a SUBROC replacement, whether it drops a nuclear depth charge or a lightweight torpedo. Either or both.
 
Scott Kenny said:
If that XLUUV is emitting active sonar to talk to the controller, even an acoustic modem, you can track the location of at least the XLUUV if not the controller. And that means that the one advantage of a submarine is gone.
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There is a lot of research into stealthy acoustic comms over range. For example:

The Underwater Internet | WINES

ece.northeastern.edu ece.northeastern.edu

We propose a novel acoustic transmission scheme for stealthy underwater communications based on transmitting chirp signals that are further spread over a multidimensional domain spanning code, time, and frequency. The proposed scheme uses chirp-based acoustic pulses with ultrasonic spectral content following an frequency- and time-hopping pattern together with a superimposed spreading code. Therefore, it enables higher LPD/LPI performance compared to schemes that consider only a single dimension, i.e., code or frequency and provides a hopping-coding pattern that is not easily recognizable or detectable. Moreover, chirp signals are ubiquitous in the underwater environment; therefore, it is not easy for an adversary to detect the transmissions and associate them with a communication system.
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A XLUUV wouldn’t need to be in constant contact. The USN initially intends to use them as mine/sensor layers, so all they would need is a go order and positional information for their payloads. They could easily receive that data via satellite instead of acoustic connection.
 

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