MEDIUM UNMANNED SURFACE VEHICLES (MUSVs)

Abstract

Projects under this Program Element provide resources for the unmanned platforms in the Navy's Future Surface Combatant Force (FSCF), Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV), Sea Hunter, and Seahawk. 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. MUSVs provide affordable, high endurance, reconfigurable ships able to accommodate various payloads for unmanned missions and augment the Navy's manned surface force. MUSVs 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 unmanned surface vehicles are new additions to fleet units, MUSV is 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. The MUSV program benefits 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: 0605512N_4_1319_PB_2022
• Change Summary Explanation: Program Change: FY20: N/A FY21: Congressional transfers $26.302M Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle from line 27 (project 3428); $14.000M Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle machinery plant only, per Navy Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle program restructure from line 27; $15.100M Naval Surface Warfare Center land-based engineering site for Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle testing only, per Navy Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle program restructure from line 27; -$.117M Congressional General Reduction FY22: Funds transferred from PE 0603178N. The FY 2022 funding request was reduced by $4.500M to account for the availability of prior year execution balances that were realigned from PE 0603178N into 0605512N. Technical: Not applicable. Schedule: Not applicable.
• Service Agency Name: Navy

Entities

Organizations

• United States Navy

Tags

Communities of Interest

• Autonomy
• Cyber
• Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

• Acquisition
• Command And Control
• Contractors
• Contracts
• Engineering
• Information Operations
• Logistics
• Navy
• Procurement
• Product Development
• Propulsion Systems
• Situational Awareness
• Systems Engineering
• Test And Evaluation
• Unmanned Surface Vehicles
• Unmanned Systems
• Warfare

Readers

• Maritime and Naval Warfare Studies
• Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Autonomous Capabilities and Mission Reconnaissance.

Technology Areas

• Autonomy
• Autonomy - UAVs
• Fully Networked C3
• Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control