Northrop Grumman and a team of industry partners demonstrated a seabed warfare mission using a slew of unmanned systems at the Navy's recent advanced naval technology exercise, a company official said.

ANTX--which took place in August in Panama City, Florida, and Newport, Rhode Island--drew defense industry participants from across the country to show off new unmanned underwater vehicle technology.

Northrop, working alongside companies such as Huntington Ingalls, Battelle, Liquid Robotics and Riptide, demonstrated a collaborative seabed warfare mission, said Jeff Hoyle, director of undersea warfare at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.

"We are trying to showcase our ability to take multiple existing vehicles, integrate [an] autonomous command-and-control capability that Northrop Grumman has developed and show how we can do that in an end-to-end mission integration fashion," he said.

During one mission, a manned Bell 407 helicopter--which acted as a surrogate for a Northrop unmanned FireScout--provided overwatch as it flew over St. Andrews Bay in Panama City, he said. On the surface, two Liquid Robotics Wave Gliders traversed the water to provide situational awareness. …