The U.S. Navy Just Committed to 16 Robot Submarines Built to Lay Mines. Its Own Auditors Said the Program Had No Mission It Could Afford — and a Startup Beat It to the Water

The U.S. Navy Just Committed to 16 Robot Submarines Built to Lay Mines. Its Own Auditors Said the Program Had No Mission It Could Afford — and a Startup Beat It to the Water

In June 2025, the Government Accountability Office reported the Navy could not say whether it would ever field Boeing's Orca robot submarine, because no clear requirement fit the budget. Eleven months later, the Navy committed to sixteen. The Orca is an 80-ton autonomous sub built to lay mines where a crewed boat can't risk going, a real capability attached to a program that ran years late while a startup built the rival, delivered early, and st…