This week the CEO of HII [HII] said the company’s selection for the Navy’s Lionfish Small Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (SUUV) allows it to expand international sales.
In March, the Navy issued a presolicitation
notice that it will buy the Lionfish small UUV (SUUV) from HII, which offered its Remus 300 UUV. The Lionfish is meant to replace the Mk 18 Mod 1 Swordfish UUV, based on the HII Remus 100 vehicle. The Navy currently uses the Swordfish for mine countermeasures and ocean survey (Defense Daily, March 21).
“We had a significant win in unmanned with the selection of our REMUS 300 vehicle as the U.S. Navy’s next generation small UUV program of record,” Chris Kastner, HII president and CEO, said May 5 during a quarterly earnings call.
The award of the SUUV “was very important, provides us additional opportunity to sell that internationally,” he added.
Kastner noted that historically about 30 percent of the company’s unmanned sales have been international, largely focused on NATO countries.
Kastner said HII is “very tactical” in how it sells other products focused like cybersecurity, big data platforms, surveillance and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).
All of those “get some traction internationally. So we work on that, we’re very tactical in how we do that, we make sure the opportunity is valid, but all of those are opportunities in Europe and actually any NATO country, actually.”
HII first unveiled the Remus 300 UUV in 2021. At the time, an official told Defense Daily the demand signal for Remus 300 and its capabilities did not come from any specific customers, but a combination of feedback from U.S. and international defense, marine research and commercial industry customers. The company had also received several quote requests, indicating interest by various customers (Defense Daily, April 20).