Navy Starts Building New Massive, 50-Ton Undersea Attack Drone

Warrior Video Above: HERE: Navy Capt. on Video – Talks About Navy Plans for a new generation of attack subs – for the 2030s with new Sub Attack Technology

By Kris Osborn – Warrior Maven

Kris Osborn is a Senior Fellow atThe Lexington Institute

The Navy is planning to launch a massive, 50-ton undersea drone to expand mission scope, increase attack options, integrate large high-tech sensors, further safeguard manned combat crews and possibly fire torpedoes — all while waging war under the ocean surface.

The 50-ton Orca, which would not fit in a submarine launch tube, brings an unprecedented sensing, endurance and attack advantage. The Navy has finished its Critical Design Review of the Orca, called an Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle.and begun construction, Capt. Pete Small, Program Manager for Unmanned Systems, Naval Sea Systems Command, said in early May at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space symposium.

Earlier this year, Boeing was awarded a $43 million deal to build four Orcas. Boeing’s XLUUV Orca is based upon its Echo Voyager and Echo Ranger undersea drones. The Echo Ranger is an 84-foot long, massive underwater drone able to reach depths of 11,000 feet and hit ranges up to 6,500 nautical miles, according to Boeing data. The drone has obstacle avoidance, senor carrying capacity of up to 34-feet, autonomous buoyancy and Synthetic Aperture Sonar, Boeing data states.

Initial applications for the Orca include land-launched operations as a key step toward surface and undersea launches, Small said. The 50-ton Orca is too large to be launched from a submarine or ship in most instances, at the moment. For now, the drone is primarily launched from a land dock The larger Orca drone fits into the Navy’s broad priority of pairing undersea drones with surface “mother ships” able to coordinate command and control, receive information and, in some cases, direct mission activity for the drones.

The Navy plan is to one day soon have forward-positioned undersea drones able to fire weapons. Extra Large UUVs, such as Boeing’s Orca, are certainly large enough to accommodate weapons payloads, and it seems such an option is entirely feasible, depending upon the pace of undersea connectivity and fire control. Of course, it goes without saying that use of any kind of lethal force would, according to Pentagon doctrine, require a human functioning in a role of command and control to make attack decisions.