Boeing teams up with America’s biggest ship builder to build autonomous subs
The future of warfare is autonomous, but undersea, autonomous drones and submarines have a lot of civilian capabilities too
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2017) 'Boeing teams up with America’s biggest ship builder to build autonomous subs', 311 Institute, 4 July. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/boeing-teams-up-with-americas-biggest-ship-builder-to-build-autonomous-subs/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
A year after DARPA launched its own fully autonomous mine hunter and a few months after they announced they plan on building American undersea drone highways that span the oceans Boeing has announced that it is teaming up with America's largest military shipbuilder, Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), to work on underwater drones for the US Navy.
The new partners, a match arguably made in sea water, want to create drone submarines together, and who knows, one day those submarines might give the Russian’s forty ton autonomous, nuclear capable, drone submarine, the one that was recently discovered off of the US East coast, a run for its money.
Boeing has been working on drone subs for a while, namely with its Echo Voyager, a 51 foot long fully autonomous sub that can operate at sea for months at a time, and now, adding HII to the project will help both companies up their game in the area.
"This partnership provides the Navy a cost effective, low risk path to meet the emergent needs that prompted the Navy's Advanced Undersea Prototyping program," said Darryl Davis, the president of Boeing Phantom Works, "we are combining Boeing's preeminent [unmanned underwater vehicle] maritime engineering team with our nation's leading shipbuilder and Navy technical services company to get operational vehicles to the Navy years ahead of the standard acquisition process."
While a recent trio of studies looking at the future of the US Navy paid more attention to aircraft carriers, which themselves increasingly look like they’re going to be turned into drone factories, than drones, the US military’s interest in drones is undeniable – whether it’s fully autonomous drone squadrons operating out of Jacksonville, Florida, semi-autonomous warships, autonomous drone F-35’s, or unmanned hypersonic SR-72's, or swarms of drones there’s one undeniable, inescapable fact. The drones are coming.
Oh, and increasingly, they’re armed… although how long all of that will continue for will be down to the UN, who later this year are going to debate whether or not to ban what they call "killer robots."
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Why does this matter?
The future of warfare is autonomous, but undersea, autonomous drones and submarines have a lot of civilian capabilities too
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.
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Sources and further reading
- Huntington Ingalls Industries huntingtoningalls.com
Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 4 July 2017. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2017). Boeing teams up with America’s biggest ship builder to build autonomous subs. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/boeing-teams-up-with-americas-biggest-ship-builder-to-build-autonomous-subs/
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