The Navy plans to host an industry day next month to brief vendors on its needs for the Future Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) program, according to a May 16 notice.
The industry day, to be hosted by Program Executive Office Unmanned and Small Combatants’ (PEO USC) Unmanned Maritime Systems Program Office (PMS 406) in the Washington, D.C., area on June 17, seeks to give industry a better idea of how it wants the Future USV to fit into the future surface force.
Although the notice did not give specific dimensions for the Future USV, it said the vessel should be built to commercial standards and non-exquisite; sail in the open ocean at 25 knots; operate autonomously; provide the interfaces, payload deck area and support two 40-foot equivalent unit containerized payloads that each weigh 80,000 pounds.
The two containerized payloads imply it may be similarly sized as the Ghost Fleet Overlord USVs that are 150 to 200 feet long and based on offshore supply vessels. Those vessels hold two such payload containers and are considered medium-sized USVs.
In January, Rear Adm. Bill Daly, Director OF Surface Warfare (N96 ), said he is focused on moving USV investment to having a single larger Medium USV similar to the Overlord vessels rather than previous plans for separate MUSV and Large USV devoted to different payloads (Defense Daily, Jan. 14).
“The change from what you’ve heard previously is that we are not pursuing large, medium and small mix. More directly, the hybrid fleet need not include large and/or exquisite, uncrewed platforms. We’ve got to get real here. Instead of different large and medium designs we need one craft that is affordable, non-exquisite, and can come off multiple production lines in an identical manner and go toward one of two payloads, either the envisioned magazine payload of the large USV or the ISR-related payload of the medium USV,” Daly said at the time.
The notice now said the objective of this industry day is “to provide Government information and solicit industry feedback to accelerate the development and procurement of future USVs.”
The Unmanned Maritime Systems Program Office also plans to issue a Request For Information (RFI) ahead of the industry day, but details were not released in this first notice.
The industry day itself will start with a Navy presentation to the whole audience in a large room presentation on June 17 followed by small room engagement sessions with individual companies on June 18.
The deadline for registration is June 6.