Raytheon and Composite Energy Technology successfully demonstrate new unmanned undersea vehicle

Raytheon and Composite Energy Technologies have demonstrated the undersea launch of HADALUS, a new low-cost, long-endurance unmanned undersea vehicle, during a recent U.S. Navy exercise. Operating on a Navy undersea test range, the vehicle completed multiple at-sea missions and validated its ability to launch while submerged. The demonstration marked the first time the Navy has observed this integrated capability in the water, indicating a path toward a single unmanned platform that can handle detection, reacquisition and engagement within one mission.

“This demonstration is an important step in a broader roadmap to deliver autonomous, end‑to‑end undersea capabilities that are far less detectable than surface platforms,” said Jen Gauthier, vice president of Naval Systems & Sustainment at Raytheon. “By tightly coupling design, integration and at‑sea experimentation, we’ve proven we can bring new autonomous solutions to the fleet quickly and cost‑effectively.”

HADALUS measures 34 feet in length with a six-foot cross section and offers more than 2,000 nautical miles of endurance. Its free-flooded, all-carbon-fiber exoskeleton is designed for high strength and payload capacity while enabling a lower-cost architecture. The vehicle is intended to cost roughly one-third to one-fifth of comparable long-endurance systems, offering a scalable approach to more affordable undersea capabilities.

Raytheon and CET moved from a conceptual sketch to a working prototype in less than 18 months. Both companies funded the design and build of the vehicle, integrated the launcher, sonar and electronics, and conducted full system testing ahead of the exercise.

“HADALUS demonstrates that the undersea industrial base can move with greater speed and dynamism than traditional development cycles allow,” said Chase Hogoboom, CEO and president of CET. “By combining CET’s advanced composite vehicle architecture with Raytheon’s mission systems, sensors and integration expertise, we have created a highly capable platform that can be produced at a fraction of the cost of conventional alternatives.”