Page 32: of Marine News Magazine (November 2024)

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Feature

Military Craft

The commercial hull design is the same as the one the combat systems—sensors, weapons, communications and company is using for the defense version, and was evalu- integration—placed on board by defense OEMs may, ated extensively in model testing in Norway. themselves, have ITAR restrictions. (The International

The design out-performed catamarans, trimarans, out- Traf? c in Arms Regulations (ITAR) are regulations estab- rigger style hulls and even other surface effect ships in en- lished by the U.S. Department of State that govern the ergy major evaluation and model testing, Jardine said. export of defense and military technologies. Their primary “We are a U.S. company,” Jardine said. “The ? rst purpose is to protect national security and promote foreign three AIRCAT commercial vessels are being built in policy goals.)

Singapore at Strategic Marine. We are going to license “We have collaborated with many global defense OEMs these defense designs out to shipyards globally. Ulti- on a full range of systems that can be installed and integrat- mately, we hope to also build them at shipyards in the ed by these OEMs, to include guns, drones, missiles, anti-

U.S., Europe and Asia.” submarine warfare (ASW) weapons and soft-kill systems,”

Jardine said the vessels can easily be built at a number Jardine said. “AIRCAT Bengals can also be equipped with of different tier 2 and 3 shipyards in the U.S. and abroad. radar and optronic sensors which can provide remote tar- “We could scale up with a number of yards to build them geting for other ships and aircraft.” quickly and in large numbers.” “We have the margin to bring on new combat capabili-

The vessels are completely non-ITAR, although the ties as they are developed,” Jardine said.

32 | MN November 2024