US shipyard HII expands in UK to service growing Europe UUV business

PARIS – Huntington Ingalls Industries has doubled the footprint of its site on the south coast of England as the American shipbuilder seeks to service its growing business of unmanned underwater vehicles for the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy and other navies in western and northern Europe.

The enlarged HII site in Portchester, England, will now be able to assemble the company’s Remus 620 medium-class modular UUV, and allow the company to increase the pace of training for allied navies, Nick Green, the manager in charge of the facility, said in a Jan. 12 briefing with reporters.

Growing technological maturity means navies are now comfortable placing bigger UUV orders of 10 or 15 systems, compared to orders for one or two units in the past, according to Green. European NATO members including the U.K., the Netherlands and Belgium, are replacing traditional crewed minehunter vessels with a range of unmanned vehicles to detect and neutralize sea mines.

“The demand is there, the requirements are there as the technology is improving, the sensors are improving and the capabilities are improving, and ultimately that will see an increase in the market space,” Green said.

The Royal Navy acquired its first two Remus vehicles in 2001 for mine warfare, and now operates a mixed fleet of models in that role, and Green said the new facility will help HII fulfill its maintenance contract for the Royal Navy.

The company says its Remus systems are in use with 30 countries, including 14 NATO members. Beyond the U.K., European users include Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania and Estonia.

HII continues to see “robust interest” in the area of mine countermeasures, while increased defense budgets and a focus on investing in unmanned systems will drive unit sales more broadly, said Duane Fotheringham, president of the Unmanned Systems group in HII’s Mission Technologies division, in the briefing.

While competition has increased in UUVs, “it’s something we’re well prepared for,” according to Fotheringham. He said the open architecture of the Remus drones and their modularity allows software and hardware to be updated, with partners providing the sensors or payloads. “We’ve been building vehicles for a long time, and those vehicles have stood the test of time.”

While countering mines is the main use case for U.K. and European clients, the ability for long-range patrol will be relevant for changing seabed-warfare requirements such as protection of critical infrastructure, according to Green. “The payloads that we are developing and putting onto these vehicles at this time allow sort of a future capability coverage,” Green said.

The plan is for some level of U.K. production “where possible,” including on launch and recovery systems for the Remus 620 as well as basic-level assembly of the vehicles themselves, according to Green.

“The intent is to try and put more emphasis onto what we can do within the U.K., as we believe that U.K. content for U.K. contracts is more and more important, and a big part of what we can offer as a mature UUV-USV supplier,” Green said.

The company has been testing torpedo-tube launch and recovery of the Remus 620, and in the U.K. is working with Babcock on that capability, with the British partner’s launch and recovery technology used on the Royal Navy’s submarines.

Almost all repair and maintenance work for U.K. customers as well as many European customers is done on Portchester, and the company seeks to avoid moving equipment between the U.S. and Europe, accordinng to Fortheringham.

HII has delivered more than 750 UUVs in the Remus family, including a “significant number” across Europe, according to Fotheringham. The company says the two-man portable Remus 100 is its most popular model with more than 400 units sold worldwide.

Portchester will also provide a European support base for the planned Romulus family of unmanned surface vehicles, according to Fotheringham.

HII has been testing an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance version of a Romulus platform as well as a man-portable Romulus in the United States, Fotheringham said. The company is building a 190-feet Romulus that it intends to have on the water and ready for delivery by the end of 2026, according to the executive.

The intent is to bring Romulus systems over to this side of the Atlantic to demonstrate them to the Royal Navy and HII’s other European naval customers, according to Green.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——美国造船商亨廷顿·英格尔斯工业公司将其位于英格兰南部海岸的厂址面积扩大了一倍，以服务于其不断增长的无人水下航行器业务，该业务服务于英国皇家海军以及西欧和北欧其他国家的海军。

位于英国波特切斯特的 HII 扩建后的基地现在能够组装该公司的 Remus 620 中型模块化无人水下航行器，并使该公司能够加快对盟军海军的训练速度。该设施的负责人尼克·格林在 1 月 12 日向记者举行的简报会上表示。

格林表示，随着技术的日益成熟，各国海军现在更倾向于一次性订购10套或15套无人水下航行器（UUV），而过去通常只订购一两台。包括英国、荷兰和比利时在内的欧洲北约成员国正在用一系列无人水下航行器取代传统的有人驾驶扫雷舰，用于探测和清除水雷。

格林表示：“随着技术的进步、传感器的改进和功能的提升，市场需求和要求也在不断提高，最终这将推动市场空间的增长。”

英国皇家海军于 2001 年购入了首批两辆雷姆斯战车用于水雷战，目前已拥有一支由多种型号战车组成的混合舰队执行该任务。格林表示，新设施将帮助 HII 履行其与英国皇家海军的维护合同。

该公司表示，其Remus系统已在30个国家投入使用，其中包括14个北约成员国。除英国外，欧洲用户还包括德国、荷兰、比利时、挪威、瑞典、立陶宛和爱沙尼亚。

HII 任务技术部门无人系统集团总裁杜安·福瑟林厄姆在简报中表示，HII 继续看到市场对地雷对抗措施领域“强劲的兴趣”，而国防预算的增加以及对无人系统投资的重点将更广泛地推动销量增长。

福瑟林厄姆表示，虽然无人水下航行器（UUV）领域的竞争日益激烈，“但我们已做好充分准备”。他指出，Remus无人机的开放式架构和模块化设计使其软硬件能够轻松升级，而传感器或有效载荷则由合作伙伴提供。“我们制造无人机已有很长时间，这些无人机经受住了时间的考验。”

格林表示，虽然对于英国和欧洲客户而言，反水雷是其主要应用场景，但远程巡逻能力对于应对不断变化的海底作战需求（例如保护关键基础设施）也至关重要。“我们目前正在研发并部署到这些载具上的有效载荷，使其具备一定的未来作战能力，”格林说道。

格林表示，该计划的目标是在英国进行一定程度的生产，包括雷姆斯 620 的发射和回收系统，以及车辆本身的基本组装。

格林表示：“我们的目标是更加重视我们在英国本土能够做的事情，因为我们相信，英国本土的内容对英国的合同越来越重要，而且作为一家成熟的无人水下航行器/无人水面艇供应商，这是我们能够提供的重要服务的一部分。”

该公司一直在测试 Remus 620 的鱼雷发射管发射和回收，并在英国与 Babcock 合作开发这项能力，英国合作伙伴的发射和回收技术已应用于英国皇家海军的潜艇。

据福瑟林厄姆称，公司几乎所有为英国客户以及许多欧洲客户进行的维修和维护工作都在波特切斯特完成，并且公司力求避免在美国和欧洲之间运输设备。

据福瑟林厄姆称，HII已交付超过750台Remus系列无人水下航行器，其中包括“相当数量的”交付给欧洲用户。该公司表示，双人便携式Remus 100是其最受欢迎的型号，全球销量超过400台。

据福瑟林厄姆称，波特切斯特还将为计划中的罗穆卢斯系列无人水面航行器提供欧洲支持基地。

福瑟林厄姆表示，HII公司一直在美国测试罗穆卢斯平台的情报、监视和侦察版本以及单兵便携式版本。据这位高管透露，该公司正在建造一艘190英尺长的罗穆卢斯平台，计划于2026年底前完成下水测试并交付使用。

格林表示，此举的目的是将罗穆卢斯系统带到大西洋彼岸，向英国皇家海军和HII的其他欧洲海军客户进行演示。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。