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L3Harris Artwork
This artist rendition shows the unmanned vessel being developed for the Navy. Swiftships of Morgan City will do a significant portion of the work on a prototype.

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Submitted Artwork/Metal Shark
Metal Shark released this artwork of the long-range unmanned vessel system it's developing for the U.S. Marine Corps. The St. Mary shipyard announced the contract last month.

From the Editor: St. Mary has role in new military technology

The U.S. Navy is moving into unmanned vessels in a big way, and St. Mary Parish companies and workers are playing a role in the transition.
A month ago, Metal Shark of Jeanerette announced that it has been chosen to develop the long range unmanned surface vessel system for the Marine Corps.
That followed July’s announcement that L3Harris Technologies was awarded a $35 million contract from the U.S. Navy to develop a medium unmanned surface vehicle prototype. The majority of that work will be done by Swiftships in Morgan City.
The projects were awarded during a national security debate over how fast the Navy should move into unmanned vessels to reinforce or replace aging warships, and how much Congress is willing to spend for the transition. Even the role that unmanned vessels will play in naval operations is being hashed out in government and think tanks.
Medium unmanned vessels, in the Navy’s classification systems, are vessels 45 to 190 feet long.
Metal Shark described the vessel it will develop for the Marines as “a tiered, scalable weapons system [that] will provide the ability to accurately track and destroy targets at range throughout the battle space. While fully autonomous, the vessels may be optionally manned and they will carry multiple payloads, which they will be capable of autonomously launching and retrieving.”
Metal Shark turned to Spatial Integrated Systems to provide the autonomy solution for the LRUSV system. Metal Shark will also develop support craft based on its existing 40 Defiant military patrol vessels.
“The LRUSV program represents a significant milestone for autonomous technology, for the defense world, and for the entire shipbuilding industry,” said Metal Shark CEO Chris Allard in a press release. “We are thrilled to be integrating advanced autonomy and Command and Control capability into these highly specialized surface vessels to provide the Marine Corps with a next-generation system.”
Metal Shark has already built and delivered 400 autonomous vessels for commercial and government customers, the company said.
Like the craft being developed for the Marines, the Navy vessel prototype in which Swiftships is involved is designed to be operated with automation or with an assist from humans.
“L3Harris will integrate the company’s ASView autonomy technology into a purpose-built 195-foot commercially derived vehicle from a facility along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana,” according to a press release from New Jersey-based L3Harris. “The MUSV will provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to the fleet while maneuvering autonomously and complying with international collision regulations, even in operational environments.”
The USNI News website reported that in 2019, the Navy envisioned the MUSV as a craft that would “function as a sensor and communications relay as part of a family of unmanned surface systems being developed by the service. The craft will be able to carry a payload equivalent to a 40-foot shipping container, will operate on its own for at least 60 days before needing to return to port, and be capable of refueling at sea.”
Some key members of Congress have been skeptical of the Navy’s plans, saying the role unmanned vessels will play is too vague.
The 2021 appropriations process knocked more than $370 million off the Pentagon’s request of $464 million for large unmanned surface vessel development. Large USVs are 190 feet or longer.
One thing seems clear: Unmanned weapon systems are playing a larger and larger role in warfare.
In one recent example from land warfare, Azerbaijan deployed drones in a long-standing border dispute with Armenia last fall. The inexpensive, Turkish-built drones hammered Armenia’s tanks and helped Azerbaijan win the short war.
Bill Decker is managing editor of The Daily Review.

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