Kongsberg Discovery completes an underwater demonstration of an autonomous underwater vehicle for the US Navy
Kongsberg Discovery successfully completed in-water demonstrations of the HUGIN Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) as part of the commercial evaluation of Large Diameter Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (LDUUV) systems by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the U.S. Navy, according to the company's release.
It was announced in January this year that Kongsberg Discovery was awarded a contract with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to rapidly deliver HUGIN Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) capabilities for the U.S. Military. In April a delegation from the U.S came to Horten in Norway for a comprehensive week-long demonstration.
Kongsberg produces three models that fall into the LDUUV category as defined by U.S. Navy. The newest and most capable of those is HUGIN Endurance. While the new AUV incorporates many of the industry-leading capabilities found in previous HUGIN vehicles, to enable long-term unsupported missions, new advancements had to be made, including greater redundancy, a new autonomous mission management system, greater situational awareness, and the ability to deal with a wide range of varying water density.
Today there are 12 navies using HUGIN in real world missions such as IPoE (Intelligence Preparation of the Operational Environment), MCM (Mine Counter Measure), SSW (Subsea and Seabed Warfare), and seafloor mapping operations.
Since the start of the HUGIN program, Kongsberg has delivered more than 100 HUGIN AUV systems globally for both commercial and government customers.
The HUGIN family of AUVs include multiple contenders for the LDUUV market. Of these, HUGIN Endurance, launched in 2021, is the largest member of Kongsberg Discovery’s HUGIN family of AUVs. In addition to Kongsberg’s standard compliment of mapping sensors, this vehicle includes a large configurable volume that can be used to carry a mixture of batteries and custom payloads as needed. The system is designed to allow autonomous operations directly from shore, and with a full complement of batteries, it can spend up to 15 days at sea, traveling up to 2200 km (1200 nm).
