US Navy concretises its Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel

DARPA (US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is entering stage 2 of its NOMARS programme (No Manning Required Ship) for the development of ships that no longer require human intervention while at sea. The aim is to build a demonstrator for a medium-sized MUSV (Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel) that can fulfil its tasks at sea with a significant payload and maximum reliability.

New deployment concepts for navies

Whatever the payload, the unmanned ship will open up completely new application concepts in the future. "We will enable deployment and stationing procedures that can provide entire fleets of unmanned vehicles worldwide as partners for larger manned combat units of the US Navy," said the programme manager of the Tactical Technology Office. In the first phase, the contracted service company Serco Inc. (Serco plc, London) analysed the space for design parameters in which such a ship could be developed. From mass data, numerous designs between 170 and 270 tonne platforms were reduced to one model for the preliminary design proposal, which was named "Defiant". Phase 2 now involves finalising the design, building the ship and then subjecting it to a large number of tests before it sets sail for three months of sea trials. "Defiant", the first 210-tonne MUSV of its kind, will be characterised by maximum reliability and energy efficiency thanks to onboard hybrid power generation, high-performance batteries and encapsulated propulsion elements.

And under water the "Manta Ray"

DARPA is working simultaneously with the MUSV on the production of an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) called "Manta Ray", which has been commissioned from two companies - Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation and Martin Defense Group - as real-size demonstrators.