Navy cancels ‘Snakehead’ large undersea drone competition after decade of development

Published on April 19, 2023

The United States Navy is canceling an industry competition over the development of the Large Displacement Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (LDUUV). Companies were previously planning on competing over the role of ‘prime contractor responsible for producing the UUV,’ but the Navy now seeks to re-align its UUV plans with its wider submarine plans.

Since the program is currently on pause, the ‘next step up’ for UUVs is the ‘Orca,’ an Extra Large UUV (XLUUV) made by Boeing. Smaller UUVs are also in the works by companies like Leidos, but these vessels lack the battery power needed to travel long distances which larger uncrewed systems can accomplish.

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