AN/BLQ-11 Long-Term Mine Reconnaissance System

Class overview
Name	AN/BLQ-11
Builders	Boeing Defense, Space & Security
Operators	United States Navy
General characteristics
Type	Autonomous underwater vehicle
Displacement	2,743 pounds (1,244 kg)
Length	20 ft (6.1 m)
Beam	1 ft 9 in (0.53 m)
Height	1 ft 9 in (0.53 m)
Propulsion	Thrusters
Endurance	60 hours (nominal load)
Test depth	3,300 ft (1,000 m; 550 fathoms)
Sensors & processing systems	Forward/side-scan synthetic aperture sonar

The AN/BLQ-11 is an autonomous unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) formerly called Long-Term Mine Reconnaissance System (LMRS). It was developed by Boeing Defense, Space & Security for the United States Navy. The LMRS is a torpedo tube-launched and tube-recovered underwater search and survey vehicle capable of autonomous naval minefield reconnaissance as much as 120 miles (190 km) in advance of its host Los Angeles-, Seawolf-, or Virginia-class submarine. ^[1] LMRS is equipped with both forward-looking sonar and side-scan synthetic aperture sonar.

History

Boeing concluded the detailed design phase of the development project on 31 August 1999. The USS Oklahoma City (SSN-723) successfully launched the 20-foot (6.1 m) long vehicle for covert mine countermeasures in September 2005. In January 2006 sea trials, the USS Scranton (SSN-756) conducted 24 test runs successfully demonstrating homing and docking of an LMRS UUV. ^[2] In October 2007, USS Hartford (SSN-768) conducted further tests.

Due to technical and engineering limitations the U.S. Navy's Mission Reconfigurable UUV System (MRUUVS) program, of which AN/BLQ-11 was a part, ended in December 2008. ^{[3] [4]}

References

1. "USS Virginia SSN-774", SketchFab.com, 11 January 2023, retrieved 23 August 2023
2. Piggott, Mark O. (3 September 2006). "USS Scranton Completes Successful UUV Test". US Navy.mil. Archived from the original on 25 November 2006.
3. Winchester, C.; Egan, C.; Drozd, D.; Zolla, A.; Westenberger, J. (June 2002). "Performance, safety characterizations and system integration of a large lithium thionyl chloride battery for unmanned undersea vehicles". Proceedings of the 2002 Workshop on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, 2002. pp. 39–43. doi:10.1109/AUV.2002.1177200. ISBN   0-7803-7572-6. S2CID   108856840.
4. Wernli, Robert L (July 2000). Low Cost UUV's for Military Applications: Is the Technology Ready? (PDF) (Report). San Diego, California: Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center. Retrieved 23 November 2025.