Image Credit: Boeing

Back in 2017 we reported on the Boeing Echo Voyager autonomous unmanned submarines and now, big brother is here. It comes in the form of the Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (XLUUVs) built for a host of applications.

The US Navy awarded Boeing with a US$43 million contract to build four Orca’s and the support gear. Boeing partnered with Huntington Ingalls Industries to develop the 51-ft (15.5 m) long unmanned undersea vehicles which will operate in the open ocean. This is largely thanks to next-level autonomous navigation systems and a fuel module that gives the Orca an incredible range of 6,500 nm (7,480 mi / 12,038 km).

But to get a real idea of the engineering ingenuity of the Orca, let’s recap on the Boeing Echo Voyager.