Kongsberg’s large uncrewed vehicle to join US Navy

The Hugin Superior autonomous underwater vehicle system from Kongsberg Discovery has completed its acceptance testing for the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the US Navy (USN).

A year ago, Kongsberg won a 24-month DIU contract for Large Diameter Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (LDUUV).

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Final testing of the LDUUV was completed at the start of 2025 in Norway and having finished its acceptance training, it will now be passed to the USN to begin its operational life.

"Kongsberg is excited to be expanding its relationship with the US Navy with our Hugin Superior autonomous uncrewed vessel system,” said Richard Patterson, vice president of sales at the company’s uncrewed platforms division. 

The Hugin Superior system has been in active use in both military and commercial markets since 2019, and has delivered immediate operational capability for subsea and seabed warfare, mine counter measures, and particularly inspection capabilities for critical undersea infrastructure with no additional modifications required.

The plug-and-play nature of the system means LDUUV users will have a minimal-training uncrewed system to add to their mission profiles.

The LDUUV will have over 70h of endurance between recharges and an underwater navigational accuracy of <0.04% of distance travelled.

In 2024, US Chief of Naval Operations, Adm Lisa Franchetti said UUVs represented “an important step forward as we drive towards our future hybrid fleet, which is going be composed of manned and unmanned platforms”.

The LDUUV will join an already-diverse roster of large UUVs at use in the USN, including Boeing’s Orca XLUUV.