By Kelly Cloonan
Huntington Ingalls Industries was awarded another year under its existing contract with the US Navy to build autonomous submarines.
The shipbuilder said Monday the Navy exercised an option year production contract for its Lionfish small unmanned undersea vehicle.
By the end of 2025, HII built 42 Lionfish vehicles under the contract. The five-year contract could scale to as many as 200 vehicles, with a total contract value of more than $347 million, the Newport News, Va., company said.
The Lionfish vehicle is designed for a range of undersea warfare missions, with capabilities spanning intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, anti-submarine warfare and electronic warfare operations, HII said.
Write to Kelly Cloonan at kelly.cloonan@wsj.com