Unmanned Vessel Deploys With Carrier Strike Group for the First Time
Unmanned Vessel Deploys With Carrier Strike Group for the First Time
Unmanned Vessel Deploys With Carrier Strike Group for the First Time
The U.S. Navy has confirmed that a midsize unmanned surface vessel has sailed with the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, currently under wa...
Seahawk predates the drone-vessel designs now in production for the Navy's MUSV program. The prototype dates back to 2017, when the Navy awarded Leidos a contract to upgrade its existing Sea Hunter design using lessons learned from early trials. Leidos kept the trimaran hull form, but re-engineered the vessel's systems for minimal human intervention at sea, hoping to achieve truly unmanned, self-navigating operations.
“We didn’t just put an autonomous navigation system onto an existing ship,” said defense executive Dan Brintzinghoffer, Leidos' Vice President for Maritime Solutions at the time of the USV's delivery(now with Austal USA). “Every mechanical and electrical system on Seahawk has unique configurations designed to run for months at a time without maintenance or a crew.”