The U.S. Navy has christened the first prototype of its largest submarine-launched large displacement unmanned undersea vehicle at a test facility in Rhode Island.
The Snakehead LDUUV is the service branch’s modular, reconfigurable and multi-mission system that will deliver guidance and control, navigation, situational awareness, propulsion, maneuvering and sensors during underwater operations, the Naval Sea Systems Command said Friday.
Snakehead features a government-owned architecture, vehicle software and various mission autonomy technologies designed to improve the Navy’s endurance, depth capability and payload capacity.
Representatives from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport and the Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants performed the christening at the Narragansett Bay Test Facility in Rhode Island.