Echo Ranger is an autonomous large-diameter unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV). The 18-foot-long (5.6-meter)UUV was originally used to capture high-resolution sonar images of seabeds in the Gulf of Mexico for the oil and gas industry. Boeing has conducted several autonomous test dives in the Pacific Ocean, off of Catalina Island in Southern California, and is now demonstrating Echo Ranger’s capabilities for underwater intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, harbor and waterway patrol for security threats, and environmental testing. Capable of diving to 10,000 feet (3,000 meters), Echo Ranger can be equipped with a variety of scientific instruments or payloads.

For more than 40 years, Boeing has been in the maritime deep submersible industry. Rockwell International, a Boeing heritage company, pioneered deep-dive manned submersibles in the 1960s. And Boeing later was among the first to build a large-diameter UUV, Echo Ranger, capable of operating autonomously, not tethered to a mother ship and using mission-oriented navigation software to adjust to changing conditions. Continued Echo Ranger work at Boeing is focused on increasing the mission duration, power system efficiency and autonomous capabilities of the UUV.