DARPA Christens U.S. Navy's First Fully-Unmanned Oceangoing Ship

Illustration courtesy DARPA

As part of our Career Connect Washington Maritime Sector ongoing work, we actively track, document, and inform about emerging technologies and trends. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has christened its fully unmanned warship prototype, the No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS). 

DARPA pioneered the U.S. military's unmanned-vessel efforts with the launch of the ACTUV / Sea Hunter system in 2016. The much larger NOMARS design evolved in parallel with the Navy's crewboat-influenced systems, variously named Ghost Fleet Overlord, MUSV, FUSV and (most recently) MASC. 

NOMARS is designed to maneuver around the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base's limitations. Its hull design has fine lines for speed, but it's simple enough to build at any Tier III shipyard with room for a 180-foot boat of 240 tonnes displacement, DARPA says. That specification means that many workboat and yacht yards could bid, so the ship could be built at scale without the wait times of the overburdened Tier I prime contractors. (The Defiant prototype was built at Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, a well-regarded yard not previously known for warship construction.)

Go to this link to read the full article published by The Maritime Executive https://maritime-executive.com/article/darpa-christens-u-s-navy-s-first-fully-unmanned-oceangoing-ship