Congressional report of the US Naval Institute on unmanned warships

Navy wants to procure "Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles"

The US Navy wants to develop and procure three types of large unmanned vehicles (UVs): Large Unmanned Surface Vehicles (LUSVs), Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicles (MUSVs), and Extra-Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (XLUUVs). The Navy's FY 2022 budget provides $434.1 million for research and development of these large UVs and associated technologies.

Compared to the current fleet structure, there will be fewer aircraft carriers with large decks, cruisers, destroyers, large amphibious ships and large supply ships, but more frigates, corvettes, smaller amphibious units and smaller supply ships. The third component will be the different types of UVs.

Ambitious: the report refers to plans for LUSVs with a length of 200 to 300 feet and a displacement of 1,000 to 2,000 tonnes when fully loaded, i.e. the size of a corvette. They are to be cost-effective and based on commercial ship designs. The armament should be suitable for surface warfare, but also carry payloads for intelligence gathering and electronic warfare (EW).

If you would like to read the full report, click here: https://news.usni.org/2022/02/21/report-on-navy-large-unmanned-surface-and-undersea-vehicles-7