Particle.news
Download on the App Store

U.S. Navy Extends Production of Lionfish Undersea Drone

The option-year award keeps a five-year production plan active, signaling Navy interest in rapidly fielding commercial-built unmanned undersea systems.

Overview

  • Huntington Ingalls Industries received an option-year production contract for the Navy’s Lionfish small unmanned undersea vehicle, extending a multiyear program that continues vehicle deliveries.
  • The contract keeps a five-year production effort in place that HII says could scale to about 200 Lionfish vehicles and carry a total potential value above $347 million.
  • Lionfish is built on HII’s commercial REMUS 300 platform, a modular small UUV adapted through a rapid prototyping effort with the Defense Innovation Unit and the Navy to perform mine countermeasures, ISR, anti-submarine warfare, and electronic warfare.
  • HII cites a late-2025 manufacturing milestone with the 42nd Lionfish completed at its Pocasset, Massachusetts facility and also describes the vehicle as cyber-compliant and rapidly upgradable, but those specific cyber and fleet statistics come from the company and are not independently verified in the coverage.
  • The program is being highlighted as an example of Other Transaction Authority prototyping moving into a Federal Acquisition Regulation production line, a shift that could speed use of commercial autonomy in naval operations and expand options for deploying unmanned systems alongside sailors.