As the Modular Attack Surface Craft project matures I am posting a July 2025 article with some of the terms of reference
The Navy's plans for a family of MASC drone vessels are centered on containerized missile launchers and sensor packages.
www.twz.com
The Navy wants a fleet of 134 Large USVs to complement their 381 manned vessels.
They are looking for a build rate of 20 vessels per year.
They expect the prototypes to be in the water by the end of this year and they prefer a mature existing design.
The baseline design is the type of Fast Crew Supply vessel built by Swiftships, Damen and Vard among others. They are typically 59m long and displace 700 tonnes, take about 18 months to build and cost 10 to 15 MUSD each.
The baseline craft is to carry 2x 40ft containers on an open deck, each weighing 36 tonnes and consuming 75 kW of electricity. It is required to make 25 kts in SS4 for 2500 nautical miles in a comms denied environment.
The next size up is to lift 4x 40 ft containers of the same weight but only draw 50 kW per container.
The smaller size is for 1x 20ft container drawing 75 kW.
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The explicit reason for looking at this accelerated program is that they can't get manned hulls into the water fast enough.
By law the vessels can not be manned. They cannot be optionally manned. They must be fully autonomous.
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I wonder how small a craft can be and still mount a Sea Giraffe on top of a 150 ft mast, per the RN's latest RFP.
www.navalnews.com
