By Samantha Masunaga / Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — Boeing Co.’s Echo Voyager has headed back to sea for a second round of testing, as the aerospace company looks to demonstrate the underwater drone’s more sophisticated capabilities for a U.S. Navy contract competition.
The 51-foot-long, yellow and gray autonomous undersea vehicle is being designed to glide just beneath the waves or along the ocean floor for months at a time with little to no contact with human operators. Its missions could include surveillance that would be either too mundane or dangerous for human submarine crews to tackle and reconnaissance.
Boeing has said Echo Voyager can reach a maximum depth of 11,000 feet, with a top speed of about 9 mph. The drone runs on a hybrid electric-battery/marine diesel system; its diesel generator will kick in when the battery runs low. It periodically resurfaces to snorkel depth to recharge.
The drone is guided by motion and rotation sensors, as well as sonar to avoid obstacles, Boeing has said. It can use GPS when operating near or at the surface.
The Navy sees autonomous undersea vehicles as a key part of its future mission strategy, defense industry analysts and investors said. In September, the Navy awarded contracts worth about $40 million each to Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. to design an extra-large autonomous undersea vehicle system that could be deployed from a pier or potentially from a surface ship.
The Echo Voyager is based at Boeing’s Huntington Beach facility.
This winter, after the design phase is complete, the Navy will choose one contractor to build up to five drones. The first extra-large undersea drone is expected to be delivered in 2020, followed by additional deliveries in the next two years.
Boeing’s 50-ton Echo Voyager completed its first round of testing last year when the company evaluated the drone’s subsystems, such as propulsion, batteries and recharging.
The tests, which took place off the Southern California coast, were “extremely successful” and allowed Boeing to see how some commercial off-the-shelf maritime equipment operated with the system, said Lance Towers, director of autonomous maritime and mission systems.
In some instances, Boeing had to work with vendors to make sure products, including an unspecified navigation system, could operate in the water for extended periods of time.
“Computer models are one thing,” Towers said. “You have to verify the assumptions.”
This second round of testing is expected to finish in the next couple of months. Then, the drone will return to Boeing’s Huntington Beach facility for any upgrades or additional endurance testing.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
