The US Navy has awarded Boeing a US$72 million contract for the delivery of an extra large unmanned undersea vehicle (XLUUV) prototype to be used for testing purposes.
The prototype will be a separate example from five XLUUVs in the same series that Boeing is already building for the navy under a separate contract awarded in 2019.
The Boeing XLUUV prototype will also be configured to accommodate a range of mission-specific payloads such as a new type of undersea mine currently under development. The navy will soon begin using the prototype as an evaluation vehicle to assess its capabilities prior to taking delivery of the five full-scale development XLUUVs.
