NUWC Division Newport, PEO team christen Snakehead UUV at Narragansett Bay Test Facility

Snakehead provides guidance and control, navigation, situational awareness, propulsion, maneuvering and sensors in support of the intelligence preparation of the operational environment mission. (Photo courtesy of US Navy.)

GREEN BAY, Wisc. — The Navy has cancelled a previously planned industry competition to manufacture a large unmanned undersea vehicle, Breaking Defense has learned.

The program, the Large Displacement Unmanned Undersea Vehicle, also dubbed Snakehead, has been in development for more than a decade and has produced at least one prototype vessel that measures roughly four feet in diameter and is seven-to-eight feet long.

“The original acquisition strategy for LDUUV planned a competitive contract for phase 2 industry prototyping, but this was cancelled due to the decision to pause the program,” said Alan Baribeau, a Navy spokesman, told Breaking Defense in response to an inquiry. “Future acquisition strategy plans will be reassessed as the Navy continues experimentation, study, and planning for this class of UUVs.”

Breaking Defense previously reported the service had opted to restart research and development efforts in fiscal 2024, following a pause that was driven in last year’s budget by uncertainty in how the drone could be deployed from a next-generation attack submarine.

“We needed to align with the next generation SSN(X)… So, when the Virginia Payload Module that was going to be the primary launch [and] recovery method for LDUUV went away, then our way to get on and off submarines went away,” said Capt. Scot Searles, the program manager, during the Sea Air Space exposition earlier this month.

The program previously planned on the Naval Undersea Warfare Center working with industry to develop a preliminary design. Companies would then compete to be the prime contractor responsible for producing the UUV.

With that competition cancelled, and only $7 million requested in the new president’s budget to continue experimenting with the current prototype, the Navy may be left with a large gap in its family of UUVs at a time the service leaders say they are ready to integrate the technology more deeply into the fleet.

The next step up in UUVs is the Boeing-made Extra Large UUV, called Orca, which is anticipated to first deploy in 2026. That drone, however, is too large to be carried by a submarine and must deploy from pier-side.

Stepping down in size, the service is working with Leidos on its Medium, and HII on its Small, UUVs, both of which can be useful to the Navy in their own rights, but will always lack the long distances and powerful batteries that larger unmanned vessels can accommodate.