No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS)
Abstract
No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) is developing small, low-cost, disaggregated naval platforms to demonstrate the ability to perform persistent power projection and force application combat missions currently conducted from large, high-value capital ships. The NOMARS program will design a ship that can operate autonomously for long durations at sea, enabling a ship design process that eliminates considerations associated with crew. NOMARS focuses on exploring novel approaches to the design of the sea frame (the ship without mission systems) while accommodating representative payload size, weight, and power. The goal of the program is to demonstrate the feasibility of Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) that operate autonomously for months to years without human intervention, in large numbers, with only periodic, depot-based maintenance. This capability will enable disaggregated persistent USVs, allowing the surface fleet to credibly threaten peer adversaries and negate their investments in high-cost weapon systems designed to counter large naval targets such as aircraft carriers. A successful NOMARS program will prove feasibility of a small unmanned ship with significantly improved reliability and functional performance over current USVs providing a pathway to allow a distributed lethality concept to become viable: small ships, in large numbers, each of which is individually low-cost and low-value, but in aggregate presents a significant deterrent. The anticipated transition partner is the U.S. Navy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2023
- Source ID
- f4b308ce0206a0ba85953f00dd3ee8da