American dual-mode underwater vehicle that can carry special-forces divers or run fully autonomous cargo missions.
Proteus is a dual-mode undersea vehicle developed by Battelle and Huntington Ingalls Industries that can work either as a crewed swimmer delivery vehicle or as a fully autonomous UUV. About 7.8 m long and weighing roughly 3.7 tonnes, it can carry up to six divers in crewed mode, or around 170 cubic feet and 3,600 lb of cargo when running on its own. It reaches more than 9 knots and works to about 46 m with a crew or 61 m uncrewed. That flexibility lets special-operations forces use one vehicle to insert teams covertly, then send it on long autonomous missions to deliver payloads, lay sensors, or gather intelligence. A 30-day simulated mission covering 2,412 nautical miles demonstrated its endurance.
Battelle specifications: 310 x 63.5 x 64 in (about 7.8 x 1.6 x 1.6 m), 8,240 lb, 9+ kn, working depth 150 ft crewed or 200 ft (61 m) uncrewed, 170 ft³ cargo volume, 3,600 lb cargo weight. Developed by Battelle with Huntington Ingalls; a 30-day, 2,412 nm endurance mission was simulated in a test tank in Panama City, Florida.
During the International Defence Equipment and Services Exhibition HEMUS 2026, held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from 3–6 June 2026, Bulgarian shipbuilder MTG-Dolphin unveiled its Proteus 36 MLC concept, a 37-metre Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel…
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