Navy Huntington Ingalls sells undersea drones to Germany’s navy

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This is one of HII's REMUS 100 unmanned undersea vessels (HII photo)

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ push into the unmanned vessels business this year has gone international, with a sale of undersea drones to the German navy.
The REMUS 100 drones are a key product of the Massachusetts-based unmanned vessel manufacturer, Hydroid Inc., that HII acquired earlier this year for $350 million. The German navy will use the drones to clear mines. It won’t say how many it is buying or what it is paying for them.

HII followed its purchase of Hydroid this fall, announcing a facility in Hampton that it will use for production and testing.

The first of the two buildings on the 20-acre campus is nearly complete and the larger manufacturing facility will be completed next year, HII spokeswoman Beci Brenton said. The company expects to employ more than 250 people in Hampton, and says the facility will enable collaboration between its unmanned vessel business and Newport News Shipbuilding, with its in-house expertise with submarine engineering.

In addition to Hydroid, HII’s other unmanned vessel and robotics operation is based in Florida.

In a conference call with Wall Street analysts earlier this fall, HII chairman and chief executive Mike Petters said both Hydroid and the new Hampton center will allow the company to scale up its unmanned vessel and robotics business, including making large and extra-large unmanned undersea vessels.
At that conference, HII chief financial officer Chris Kastner said that Hydroid opens some international opportunities, adding “that’s something that we have not done traditionally.”

The German navy acquired six earlier models of Hydroid’s REMUS in 2012. It uses these for underwater searches and mapping. The vessels are just under 6 feet long and weight about 80 pounds. They can operate at depths of more than 325 feet for up to 12 hours.

 

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