Medium and Large Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs)
Abstract
Projects under this Program Element provide resources for the unmanned platforms in the Navy's Future Surface Combatant Force (FSCF), the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (LUSV) and Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV), along with relevant supporting enabling technologies. Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV) is defined as having a reconfigurable mission capability which is accomplished via modular payloads with an initial capability to support Battlespace Awareness through supporting Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and Information Operations (IO) mission areas. The Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (LUSV) will be delivered and fielded initially as research and development prototype vessels (Overlord prototypes and one prototype LUSV) intended to demonstrate successful integration of government furnished Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) and combat systems and the reliability of automated hull, mechanical, and electrical (HM&E) systems. The prototype LUSVs will incorporate reservations in the design for future combat capabilities with the desired goal of transitioning to procuring and delivering a LUSV with an integrated combat system and organic payloads supporting Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) and Strike mission areas. MUSVs and LUSVs provide affordable, high endurance, reconfigurable ships able to accommodate various payloads for unmanned missions and augment the Navy's manned surface force. MUSVs and LUSVs will be capable of semi-autonomous operation, with operators in-the-loop or on-the-loop. USV Command and Control (C2) will be maintained via an afloat element (i.e., embarked on a United States Navy (USN) combatant/other assigned afloat asset) or via an ashore element (C2 station ashore). While MUSV and LUSV will logically share common Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) C2 systems to support fleet integration and operations and may share other autonomy and mechanical technologies (depending on acquisition approaches), they will be primarily differentiated by size and cost as driven by payload capabilities, and capacities. Other potential future LUSV capabilities are being informed by the Navy's FSCF Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) and will be refined as future payloads and Concepts of Operation (CONOPS) are developed. MUSV and LUSV are key enablers of the Navy's Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) concept, which includes being able to forward deploy and team with individual manned combatants or augment battle groups. Fielding of MUSV and LUSV will provide the Navy increased capability and necessary capacity at lower procurement and sustainment costs, reduced risk to sailors and increased readiness by offloading missions from manned combatants. While unmanned surface vehicles are new additions to fleet units, MUSV and LUSV are intended to combine robust and proven commercial vessel specifications with existing military payloads to rapidly and affordably expand the capacity and capability of the surface fleet. Both programs benefit from years of investment and full scale demonstration efforts in autonomy, endurance, command and control, payloads and testing from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) and Office of Naval Research (ONR) Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MDUSV)/Sea Hunter (FY 2017 to FY 2021) and Office of the Secretary of Defense Strategic Capabilities Office (OSD SCO) Ghost Fleet Overlord Large USV experimentation effort (FY 2018 to FY 2021). The combination of fleet-ready C2 solutions developed by the Ghost Fleet Overlord program and initial man-in-the-loop or man-on-the-loop control will reduce the risk of fleet integration of unmanned surface vehicles and allow autonomy and payload technologies to develop in parallel with fielding vehicles with standardized interfaces. These efforts are broken out into three (3) Project Units (PUs): Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV) (Project 3428), Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (LUSV) (Project 3066) and Unmanned Surface Vehicle Enabling Capabilities (Project 3067).
Document Details
- Document Type
- R2 Budgetary Justification
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2021
- Source ID
- 0603178N_4_1319_PB_2021
- Change Summary Explanation
- Program Changes: +$464,042K transfer from PE 0603502N Technical: Not applicable. Schedule: Not applicable.
- Service Agency Name
- Navy
Entities
Organizations
- United States Navy
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