USS Delaware
US Navy Virginia-class attack submarine (SSN-791) used to demonstrate torpedo-tube launch and recovery of the REMUS 600 UUV.
USS Delaware (SSN-791), a US Navy Virginia-class fast-attack submarine, carried out a landmark torpedo-tube launch and recovery of a REMUS 600 uncrewed underwater vehicle in May 2026, the reference demonstration for submarine-launched UUV integration cited at that month's Combined Naval Event.
Last refreshed: 24 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
How does USS Delaware's REMUS 600 trial change what allied submarine fleets need to buy?
Timeline for USS Delaware
Provided torpedo-tube launch and recovery demonstration for REMUS 600 UUV
Autonomous Systems: Land & Sea: US prime digs into UK seabed warBackground
USS Delaware (SSN-791) is a Virginia-class fast-attack submarine of the US Navy, commissioned in 2020 and assigned to The Atlantic Fleet. Virginia-class boats are the Navy's primary attack submarines, built for undersea warfare, intelligence gathering and special-operations support, with large-diameter torpedo tubes originally designed for Cruise Missiles and torpedoes.
Those same tubes are being adapted fleet-wide for uncrewed underwater vehicle launch and recovery, and USS Delaware is not uniquely specialised for the role: its significance lies in demonstrating that a standard Virginia-class boat can deploy and retrieve a UUV while still submerged, converting the class from a weapons carrier into one that can also forward-deploy autonomous sensor systems without surfacing.
That capability step gives allied navies, including the Royal Navy through its Astute-class fleet, an operational reference point for what submarine-launched UUV integration looks like in practice, shaping the pace of comparable procurement across NATO.
What type of submarine is USS Delaware?
What did USS Delaware demonstrate with a REMUS drone?
Why is launching a drone from a submarine torpedo tube significant?
