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. 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. 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.
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