The Navy plans to merge the programs for the Large and Medium Unmanned Surface Vessels (LUSV and MUSV) into a single autonomous surface craft program while delays to the Orca XLUUV mean the Navy may not turn it into a program of record, according to the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) annual weapons systems assessment.
The report, published June 11, said Navy officials in April told the GAO they would merge the MUV and LUSV programs. The consolidated program thereafter aims to start development under the major capability acquisition pathway by FY 2027.
This follows statement from Rear Adm. Bill Daly, Director, Surface Warfare (N96), who in January said the Navy was shifting from separate LUSV and MUSV programs into one combined larger end MUSV program that would have different payloads to accommodate the separate previous MUSV intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and LUSV adjunct magazine mission concepts (Defense Daily, Jan. 14).
At the time, Daly said the synthesized MUSV should be about 200 feet long and able to field four 40-foot payload containers similar to the Overlord Unmanned Surface Vessels that have been tested in recent years, based on offshore oil drilling supply vessels.
Daly also estimated the costs for each MUSV could be $50 million each and allow competition with many shipyards, given the Overlord MUSV origins as common commercial vessels (Defense Daily, Jan. 17).
GAO noted that previously the Navy planned for LUSV to be a long-endurance ship intended for warfare operations with varying levels of robotic system autonomy combined with a crewed ship. It also wants them to be low-cost ships that feature modular payloads, especially to augment fleet missile capacity.
However, the LUSV program hit a delay in awarding the detail design contract in fiscal year 2025, and GAO said the Navy now plans to award the contract in FY 2027, “a more realistic date for the program to achieve, according to program officials.
Given the merging of MUSV and LUSV, the 2027 date has shifted to the decision on acquisition pathway.
Despite the program change, the report revealed several other aspects of Navy USV planning. It said the Navy has been developing a new LUSV cost estimate using stakeholders from outside the program office “because the Navy often uses assumptions in its initial cost estimates that may not apply to the LUSV.”
While the Navy usually focuses cost estimates based on a ship’s weight, the automated systems on the Large USV forced them to change the planning because the automated systems have different weights than traditional systems due to the need for the mechanized controls.
GAO also said the Navy is developing a “repository of autonomous capabilities” from government and industry partners and that industry will act as the system integrator for the USV and other autonomous systems, that the approach aims to reduce software acquisition and sustainment costs across various autonomous systems, and it plans to leverage the repository to fulfill LUSV mission requirements.
Separately, the report noted the significant delays with the Boeing [BA]-produced Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV) program.
While the Navy started developing XLUUV in FY 2027, the program has been delayed more than once and it now expects to get the initial five prototype vessels before the end of 2025, a three-month delay from a year ago.
Last month, a service official said they now plan to receive the first OXLUUV this summer, dubbed XLE-1, with the remaining vessels delivered within a year and a half (Defense Daily, May 9).
During a December visit to Boeing’s California facility by former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy said XLE-1 was set to be delivered in early 2025 (Defense Daily, Dec. 10).
“It is now unclear whether the Navy will transition the XLUUV to a program of record because there are no clear requirements that the XLUUV can meet within current budget constraints, according to officials,” the report said.
Further changes to XLUUV payloads to meet other requirements or capability gaps would mean the Navy paying the contractor to modify the XLUUV’s proprietary software, officials told GAO.
“However, officials said that the modular design of XLUUV software and payload modules provides hardware flexibility and supports the potential for adopting an iterative approach. Should the Navy decide to transition to a program of record, an iterative approach could accelerate the Navy’s deliveries,” the report continued.
Orca XLUUVs will start with the sole purpose to deliver clandestine mines, but the Navy envisions them ultimately performing more missions, like deploying other smaller unmanned vessels.
The Orca is already running years later than first planned due to fabrication delays and “ongoing battery development challenges,” GAO said.
A 2022 GAO report explained the vehicles’ issues, largely related to poor business planning because the Navy did not require Boeing to demonstrate its readiness to build the Orca to the Navy configurations compared to the Echo Voyager base commercial model (Defense Daily, Sept. 29, 2022).
At the time, the report noted the Navy’s changes to the battery requirements were so significant that the company had to find a totally new battery subcontractor.
GAO now says the battery challenges have remained so significant that the Navy plans to use less-capable battery technology than it wants for testing while it awaits Boeing’s development of the intended final XLUUV battery.
The Navy also plans to start operational testing that verifies the system meets mission requirements concurrently with acceptance of the prototypes in FY 2025, but in April the Department of Defense Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) said the program is experiencing testing delays.
The Navy claims XLUUV will be ready for operations in fiscal year 2026.