HII, partners achieve milestone in submarine-launched UUV operations

October 9, 2025, by Fatima Bahtić

A joint team from HII, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and the US Navy’s Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport (NUWC Division Newport) has completed the first recovery of a second-generation unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) REMUS 620 into a Virginia-class submarine torpedo tube and shutterway test fixture at Seneca Lake, New York.

As informed, this milestone, achieved less than seven months after integrating WHOI’s Yellow Moray torpedo tube launch and recovery (TTL&R) technology into the REMUS 620 medium UUV, marks a major step forward in the US Navy Submarine Force’s efforts to launch and recover autonomous undersea vehicles from submarine torpedo tubes.

An in-water test by the joint team confirmed the ability of REMUS 620 to conduct complex autonomous navigational and communication protocols in safely docking with the shock and fire enclosure capsule (SAFECAP) loaded into a submerged Virginia-class submarine fixture, according to the companies.

The REMUS 620 also successfully demonstrated reverse swimout launch and safe separation during this test period.

“This successful docking validates the research and development investments and efforts of HII; specifically the REMUS 620 engineers working in close cooperation with our WHOI teammates. We leveraged WHOI’s previous three years of TTL&R work, lessons learned, and expertise to greatly accelerate our progress in successfully getting to this important milestone,” said Duane Fotheringham, president of the Unmanned Systems group in HII’s Mission Technologies division.

“Despite a highly compressed schedule, our teams rapidly conducted testing runs, quickly evaluated the data, and made substantive adjustments to the vehicle,” Carl Hartsfield, director and senior program manager at Oceanographic Systems Lab (OSL) of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, stated.

“The REMUS 620 team’s thorough preparation working hand in hand with our technical experts at the OSL in advance was clear during all phases of the successful testing. We were also extremely impressed with the Seneca Lake NUWC support provided throughout the test schedule.”

Introduced in late 2022, REMUS 620 represents a significant evolution of HII’s REMUS family, combining long-range capability with an open architecture that allows easy integration of new payloads and mission systems. Built for both defense and scientific applications, the REMUS 620 can operate for up to 110 hours and travel more than 275 nautical miles, providing undersea coverage for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and mine countermeasure missions. The UUV’s depth rating is approximately 600 meters, and it can achieve a top speed of 8 knots.

The REMUS 620 achieved two significant development milestones in 2023, with a successful in-water test in October and the first sea test in December. In February this year, HII tested the UUV on the US Navy’s confidence course.