Exercise Showcases Undersea Warfare Tech.

Northrop Grumman and a team of industry partners demonstrated a seabed warfare mission using a slew of unmanned systems at the Navy's recent advanced naval technology exercise, a company official said.

ANTX--which took place in August in Panama City, Florida, and Newport, Rhode Island--drew defense industry participants from across the country to show off new unmanned underwater vehicle technology.

Northrop, working alongside companies such as Huntington Ingalls, Battelle, Liquid Robotics and Riptide, demonstrated a collaborative seabed warfare mission, said Jeff Hoyle, director of undersea warfare at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.

"We are trying to showcase our ability to take multiple existing vehicles, integrate [an] autonomous command-and-control capability that Northrop Grumman has developed and show how we can do that in an end-to-end mission integration fashion," he said.

During one mission, a manned Bell 407 helicopter--which acted as a surrogate for a Northrop unmanned FireScout--provided overwatch as it flew over St. Andrews Bay in Panama City, he said. On the surface, two Liquid Robotics Wave Gliders traversed the water to provide situational awareness. Under the sea, a Huntington Ingalls and Battelle Proteus unmanned underwater vehicle patrolled the waters and served as a mother...