''Echo Voyager'' is an

autonomous underwater vehicle An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a robot that travels underwater without requiring input from an operator. AUVs constitute part of a larger group of undersea systems known as unmanned underwater vehicles, a classification that includes ...

(AUV) built by

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

. Design work on ''Echo Voyager'' began at

Boeing Phantom Works Boeing Phantom Works is the advanced prototyping arm of the defense and security side of Boeing. Its primary focus is developing advanced military products and technologies, many of them highly classified. Founded by McDonnell Douglas, the res ...

in 2011 with the goal of improving upon earlier AUV designs that required a manned support ship due to an endurance of only a few days and a range of several hundred miles. ''Echo Voyager'' is intended to operate extended deep-sea missions at a depth of up to , with a range of up to and an endurance of six months. ''Echo Voyager'' is powered by a hybrid diesel-electric system—submerged, the vehicle uses batteries for propulsion, which are recharged by a diesel-powered generator while it is surfaced. The system has a power output of about , and allows ''Echo Voyager'' to travel submerged for several days at a time at up to . The vessel is designed to be adaptable to either military or commercial use, with a payload bay that measures by . ''Echo Voyager'' was built at Boeing's Phantom Works facility in

Huntington Beach Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 during the 2020 census, maki ...

in partnership with

Huntington Ingalls Industries HII (formerly Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.) is the largest military shipbuilding company in the United States as well as a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. HII, ranked No. 371 on the Fortune 500, w ...

. Testing in an onshore pool occurred in early 2016, and the first ocean tests off the California coast in the San Pedro Bay and near the

Palos Verdes Peninsula The Palos Verdes Peninsula (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a landform and a geographic sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the Sou ...

ran from April through June 2017 to test the vehicle's basic operational systems. Beginning in May 2018 and continuing for several more months, Boeing dispatched ''Echo Voyager'' on longer deep-sea tests that focused on the craft's ability to operate fully autonomously. In February 2019, Boeing won a $43 million contract from the United States Navy for four

Orca The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only Extant taxon, extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black ...

AUVs based on the design of ''Echo Voyager''.

References

{{Boeing AUVs Robotic submarines