Boeing awarded $11m

Boeing has signed an $11m contract for the refurbishment of the US Navy’s AN/BLQ-11 Long-term Mine Reconnaissance System and further investigation of Unmanned Undersea Vehicle capabilities and technologies via-sea testing.

The work will be performed at Boeing facilities in Anaheim, California, and at test ranges in Puget Sound, Washington, Norfolk, Virginia, and the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center near Andros Island, Bahamas.

While the navy has invested in a variety of other UUV systems that are currently in various stages of development, AN/BLQ-11 is the only submarine-certified, fully autonomous UUV system. In January, Boeing and the navy demonstrated the ability to perform homing and docking with an underway submarine.

‘We proved the feasibility of the homing and docking portion of the AN/BLQ-11 recovery concept,’ said Tom Jones, director of Boeing Marine Systems. ‘With this next round of testing, we will show the repeatability of the process and complete a full recovery evolution.’