Proteus underwater vehicle completes unmanned endurance test

A dual-mode undersea vehicle developed by Undersea Solutions Group and Battelle has successfully completed endurance testing.

Huntington Ingalls Industries, parent company of USG, said the testing consisted of a 30-day simulated unmanned mission conducted in a test tank at USG's Panama City, Fla., facility to show vehicle's reliability and ability to perform long-duration missions.

Computers in a van beside the test tank fed navigational and depth data to Proteus' autonomy and vehicle control systems to simulate the vehicle running a mission in open water. All systems for an autonomous mission were operational and responded to commands, HII said.

During the endurance test, Proteus simulated traveling 2,412 nautical miles and ran submerged for 720 hours.

"HII is committed to developing undersea technologies and systems that support the increased employment of UUVs in the future," said Ross Lindman, USG's vice president, operations. "This test helps provide reliability data and a technical foundation for development of a new generation of long-endurance UUVs to support the U.S. Navy."