Boeing has delivered the first Orca Extra Large Uncrewed Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV) to the US Navy following acceptance-testing completion last month. The XLUUV, designated by the Navy as ‘Orca’, is a new class of autonomous submarine that can perform long-duration critical missions to achieve undersea maritime dominance in changing environments and contested waters.

Ann Stevens, Boeing maritime and intelligence systems vice president, said: “This is the culmination of more than a decade of pioneering work, developing a long-range, fully autonomous undersea vehicle with a large payload capacity that can operate completely independently of a host vehicle. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of witnessing our team bring this first-of-its-kind capability to life, and I am proud of their innovation, perseverance and unwavering commitment which has yielded the most advanced and capable UUV in the world. With the US Navy’s partnership, we look forward to continuing to deliver this game-changing vehicle to the fleet.”

Orca has undergone several phases of at-sea testing, including above and below surface manoeuvres to demonstrate the vehicles’ unique capabilities and is the result of more than 50 years’ experience building and operating undersea vehicles. In 2012 Boeing initiated the design and development of Echo Voyager, a proof-of-concept XLUUV that began at-sea testing in 2017 and was a precursor to the US Navy’s Orca XLUUV competition. Echo Voyager – the world’s only vehicle of its size and capability – has spent over 10,000hr operating at sea and autonomously transited hundreds of nautical miles.