Published by The Maritime Executive
Published by The Maritime Executive vessel boat
Published by The Maritime Executive
Published by The Maritime Executive
Published Jun 20, 2024 7:12 PM by The Maritime Executive
The U.S. military has been experimenting with midsize unmanned vessels for years, testing them out on extended ocean voyages and in fleet exercises. But tech evangelists say that the U.S. Navy has been moving too slowly to acquire and use these platforms at scale - especially given the snowballing problems in its conventional shipbuilding pipeline. That may be about to change: Naval Sea Systems Command's unmanned office has asked industry for ways to deliver a long-awaited Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV) within the span of a year, a lightning-fast timeline by government procurement standards. (The Navy uses the terms "vehicle" and "vessel" interchangeably for unmanned craft.)
The new request for information seeks viable options for swiftly buying seven medium-sized unmanned vessels, shorter than 200 feet and smaller than 500 tons displacement.
The priority is on speed and "affordable cost." The RFI looks for options to "leverage existing, manned or unmanned surface ship designs that can be modified to enable rapid delivery" of an unmanned hull. Only pre-existing designs or secondhand vessels (American-built) are of interest.
The first vessel must deliver within 12 months, and the rest within 24 months. "For the purposes of this RFI, a clean-sheet design is not an option," NAVSEA emphasized.
There is precedent for this arrangement. The Pentagon's "Ghost Fleet Overlord" testbed USVs started their lives as crewboats, and the Navy has built more vessels based on the same hull designs at Austal USA (though heavily modified).
Left unspecified is the payload, which would be furnished by the government. The Navy's previous crewboat-based USVs have been used to carry and launch SM-6 missiles, among other tasks.
Supporters of the MUSV argue that smaller, cheaper, easier-to-build warships could help plug the growing gap between the American and Chinese surface fleets. Adm. Sam Paparo, commander of Indo-Pacific Command, has discussed plans to create a "hellscape" of thousands of unmanned systems to protect the Taiwan Strait. The objective would be to create enough risk to keep Chinese attackers off the island until a full-scale Western response could be mounted, denying China the opportunity for a "short, sharp war."
Published Jun 24, 2024 10:36 PM by The Maritime Executive
Two subsidiaries of aerospace giant Lockheed Martin have agreed to pay $70 million to settle allegations that they overcharged the U.S. Navy for aircraft parts, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The case was originally brought on behalf of the U.S. government by a whistleblower who worked at one of the firms involved. The case centers on activities at Sikorsky Support Services Inc. (SSSI) back in the 2000s, when the company was a division of United Technologies. At...
Published Jun 24, 2024 9:25 PM by The Maritime Executive
The U.S. Navy has minimum physical fitness standards for its recruits, and active-duty servicemembers and reservists also have to pass regular physical fitness assessments if they want to get promoted or re-enlist. But the service is facing a serious manpower shortage, and it has been adapting its HR policies to the realities of a more competitive employment marketplace. For the first time, the Bureau of Naval Personnel will allow sailors who fail two fitness assessments in a row to stay...
Published Jun 24, 2024 8:42 PM by The Maritime Executive
Each year on June 25, the global maritime community pauses to celebrate seafarers, who deliver 90 percent of all international trade. Seafarers work around the clock in a challenging industrial environment, and they leave their families for up to a year at a time in pursuit of their career. They give up the regular working hours and amenities that their shoreside peers are used to, receiving in return a better paycheck and the opportunity to travel. Without the two...
Published Jun 24, 2024 6:49 PM by The Maritime Executive
The buildout of the Jones Act-compliant fleet to service the U.S. offshore wind sector continues with St. Johns Ship Building reporting it delivered the second crew transfer vessel for Windea CTV, a partnership between Hornblower Wind and MidOcean Wind. It is also the third CTV delivered by the shipyard in 2024 with additional vessels under construction as part of the broader emerging U.S. fleet for the offshore wind industry. St. Johns Ship Building originally received the order for two...
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