U.S. Navy considers designing unmanned surface vessel to accommodate modular payloads for specific missions

Feb. 2, 2022
Human crews require spaces to eat and sleep, but a robotic vessel can devote its space to fuel, sensors, safety, and whatever else is required.

WASHINGTON – The utility ship of tomorrow is an unmanned surface vessel (USV) that will follow the laws of the sea, autonomously plot its own path, and take-on a range of modular payloads to serve the Navy over the course of its life. Popular Science reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

2 Feb. 2022 -- The U.S. Navy’s new Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) will feature a broad payload area where the Navy can pick and choose the platform’s capabilities.

Navy experts want a new kind of unmanned surface vessel, know the rough size of the vessel they want, and do not yet know exactly how that USV will function in war.

Designing an unmanned vessel that can take on a range of modular payloads and perform a wide range of missions enables Navy experts to figure out how to best incorporate robotic boats into normal operations first, and then fine-tune how they want to use those machines in the future.

Related: L3Harris moves forward in developing unmanned surface vessel for electronic warfare (EW) and intelligence

Related: Navy asks Textron to build another unmanned surface vessel for mine warfare in large open-ocean areas

Related: Navy asks industry for small-, medium-, and large-size power systems for unmanned surface vessels (USVs)

John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics

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