This unmanned underwater vehicle has a battery life of 110 hours

HII’s Mission Technologies division has released the REMUS 620, a new unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) that builds on the design philosophy of its highly successful predecessor the REMUS 300, according to a press release by the company published on Monday.

The REMUS 300 was most notably recently selected by the U.S. Navy as the program of record for the Lionfish Small UUV.

A battery life of up to 110 hours and a range of 275 nautical miles

The REMUS 620 is a more updated model of this UUV with a battery life of up to 110 hours and a range of 275 nautical miles which together provide unparalleled multi-day endurance, range and stealth. The increased battery life enables the UUV to undertake a significantly longer route to and from a mission area than previously achieved by other unmanned vehicles.

The new model's energy modules are swappable, allowing for quick turnaround and incorporation of alternative energy sources as they become available. With these advanced features, the new UUV can provide unmatched mission capabilities for "mine countermeasures, hydrographic surveys, intelligence collection, surveillance and electronic warfare."

“Retaining a forward strategic advantage requires the ability to deliver a multitude of effects from under the sea,” said Duane Fotheringham, president of Mission Technologies’ Unmanned Systems business group. “The REMUS 620 is the first medium UUV designed to accurately deliver this range of advanced above-and-below water effects at long range.”

The vehicle was designed to support current and next-generation naval and special forces operations. As such, it boasts a modular, open architecture design to facilitate seamless payload integration and HII’s Odyssey suite of advanced autonomy solutions for intelligent, robotic platforms.

It is also the same size and weight of the first and only full-rate production medium UUVs: the MK 18 Mod 2, Littoral Battleship Sensing-Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (LBS-AUV) and LBS-Razorback systems operated by the U.S. Navy’s Mine Countermeasure Squadrons, the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office and the Submarine Forces.

Can operate in cooperation with multiple models

The advanced UUV is designed so that several models can operate collaboratively at once and be deployed from "submarines, small manned or unmanned boats, amphibious ships, surface combatants and helicopters." The REMUS 620 can also serve as a platform to launch and operate other unmanned vehicles from underneath the sea.

Finally, REMUS 620’s standard synthetic aperture sonar payload can be replaced or enhanced for "multi-mission capabilities, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and cyber and electronic warfare."

REMUS 620 builds on the success of HII’s REMUS platforms that have witnessed over 30 years of innovation and delivery of more than 600 UUVs to 30 countries around the globe.

In 2018, a REMUS 6000 robot used its autonomous diving and sensing capabilities to help researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute find roughly $17 billion in gold and other valuables that went down with a Spanish ship over 300 years ago. The ship belonged to the Spanish galleon San Jose.