Panama City-built mini-sub a hit

The floor of the annual Navy League Sea-Air-Space exposition is always packed with displays, but it’s somewhat unusual to have lines forming around one both. Huntington Ingalls Industries’ booth displayed a new celebrity - a coal-black undersea vessel on display for the first time. The new “celeb” is Proteus, a submersible undersea vehicle created by what is now HII's Undersea Solution Group (USG), Battelle and Bluefin Robotics. The craft came under HII's purview in January with the purchase of the CG's Engineering Solutions Group, an outfit with long experience building swimmer delivery vehicles for the Navy. Proteus is a unique design to function as an autonomous, unmanned underwater vehicle. The craft was built in 2012 at the group's facility in Panama City, Fla. Since becoming operational, Proteus has undergone evaluation by a numerous Navy entities, including the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Panama City. HII is offering Proteus as a leased test platform asset for the Navy. (Source: Defense News 04/14/15)