MEDIUM & LARGE UNMANNED SURFACE VESSELS (USVs)

Abstract

This Program Element provides resources for the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (LUSV), one of the two unmanned platforms in the Navy's Future Surface Combatant Force (FSCF). LUSV is the material solution which will be defined in the Offensive Surface Fires Analysis of Alternatives (OSF AoA). The OSF AoA is looking at a wide range of material solutions including MUSV, LUSV and manned platforms. The Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (LUSV) will be delivered and fielded initially as research and development prototype vessels (Overlord prototype vessels already purchased) intended to demonstrate successful integration of government furnished Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I),combat systems, and the reliability of automated hull, mechanical, and electrical (HM&E) systems. LUSVs will provide affordable, high endurance ships able to accommodate various payloads for unmanned missions and augment the Navy's manned surface force. 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 (PE 0605512N) 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. LUSV is a key enabler 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 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, LUSV will 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), 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.

Document Details

• Document Type: R2 Budgetary Justification
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2022
• Source ID: 0603178N_4_1319_PB_2022
• Change Summary Explanation: Program Changes: FY21: -$372.295M Total; -$1.953M congressional general reduction, -$408.640M congressional directed reductions for restoring acquisition accountability, $93.700M congressional adds for restoring acquisition accountability - program restructure, -$55.402M congressional directed transfers to MUSV new PE. FY22: -$385.189M Total; -$380.653M other program adjustments: realignment of MUSV and USV Enabling Capabilities, re-phase and re-balance USV portfolio, -$4.536M other rate/misc. adjustments Technical: Not applicable. Schedule: Not applicable.
• Service Agency Name: Navy

Entities

Organizations

• United States Navy

Tags

Communities of Interest

• Air Platforms
• Autonomy
• Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

• Acquisition
• Autonomous Navigation
• Command And Control
• Configuration Management
• Control Systems
• Engineering
• Lessons Learned
• Procurement
• Product Development
• Reliability
• Software Development
• Spiral Development
• Systems Engineering
• Test And Evaluation
• Unmanned Surface Vehicles
• Unmanned Systems
• Warfare

Readers

• Aerial Unmanned Vehicle Swarm Micro Periodontal Dentistry.
• Maritime and Naval Warfare Studies
• Naval Mine Countermeasure Systems Development.

Technology Areas

• Autonomy
• Fully Networked C3