BAE Systems expands its UUV family

BAE Systems on 22 September unveiled its Riptide UUV-12 system, as the newest addition to its portfolio of unmanned undersea systems. 

The 30.5cm-diameter vehicle joins three other small UUV variants and marks the entry of BAE Systems into the medium UUV market.

UUV-12 is the first new vehicle of its kind to be launched since the company bought Riptide Autonomous Solutions in 2019. 

Jeff Smith, chief scientist in the FAST Labs R&D organisation within BAE Systems, said: ‘With this medium-size platform, we are strategically aligning our modular, open architecture-based UUV platform to meet rapidly expanding applications and requirements.’

UUV-12 can be customised to meet a variety of mission needs, including those that require larger and more power-hungry payloads. Integrated with mission system payloads from BAE Systems, it can deliver combinations of RF signal collection, EW, active acoustics, acoustic IFF, acoustic and RF communications, mission autonomy and navigation.

The UUV can undertake long-endurance missions, BAE Systems added, thanks to its high-efficiency electronics architecture coupled with a highly efficient, low-noise propulsion system.

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