Page 13: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2024)

? ce, and “operationalizing” the integration of uncrewed plat- truck most capable of carrying, launching and recovering small- forms into numbered ? eets beginning with the U.S. 4th Fleet. er uncrewed craft. With a maximum payload of 35,000 pounds, the T82 could carry eight eighteen-foot T18 USVs con? gured

Uncrewed Vessels Must Get to the Fight for various Navy missions such as intelligence surveillance and

One of the reasons that the Navigation Plan describes the reconnaissance (ISR) and mine countermeasures (MCM).

Navy’s con? dence in the ability of uncrewed surface systems to perform as expected next to the Navy’s crewed vessels is A Bright Future for Uncrewed Surface Vessels the fact that over the past decade, the U.S. Navy, along with This is not a platform-speci? c solution, but rather a concept. allied and partner navies, have inserted commercial-off-the- When Navy operators see a capability with different size un- shelf (COTS) uncrewed systems into Navy and Marine Corps crewed COTS platforms in the water successfully performing events to perform a wide range missions. the missions presented in this article, they will likely press indus-

That said, small and medium uncrewed surface vessels (along try to offer even more-capable platforms to perform these tasks. with their air and undersea counterparts) must get to the area of The U.S. Navy’s commitment to develop, test and ? eld un- operations to perform their various missions. Given that there crewed surface vessels at an accelerated pace has profound is limited space aboard Navy ships, another means must be implications for the maritime community. The need to ? eld a found. This requires a large uncrewed surface vessel to serve as a hybrid ? eet not at some distant time, but this decade, will likely “truck.” The Navy wants LUSVs to be low-cost, high-endurance, mean that the Navy can’t wait for uncrewed surface vessels that recon? gurable ships based on commercial ship designs. Some are developed via the DoD’s often tortuous acquisition process.

potential candidates for this mission include the Navy’s program What this means for industry is that commercial-off-the-shelf of record LUSV, the MARTAC T82, and the Ranger and Nomad uncrewed surface vessels will likely receive a favorable hearing

USVs operated by Unmanned Surface Vessel Division 1. from Navy of? cials who increasingly recognize that the need for

Rather than speak in hypotheticals, since it will be in the water a hybrid ? eet to emerge as soon as possible is compelling. The next year and will be built from the keel up to transport, launch ? rst step for industry should be to embrace this new security par- and recover smaller uncrewed surface vessels of various sizes, adigm and think outside the box as to how their COTS uncrewed the Devil Ray T82 is likely a leading candidate to serve as the systems can ful? ll a range of Navy mission requirements.

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