HII’s new family of uncrewed surface vessels have been named Romulus — a name which dovetails well with their assorted Remus underwater autonomous craft.
And the defence firm, America’s largest military shipbuilder, had previously already continued the classical theme with the name of its autonomous control system, Odyssey.
The new USV family, which has taken the name of Rome’s other apocryphal co-founder, has been developed with input from the firm’s Dark Sea Labs Advanced Technology Group.
The largest of the new Romulus vessels, the Romulus 190, is currently under construction; the finished craft will be 190ft long, and capable of speeds in excess of 25 knots. Its range is expected to be in the region of 2,500 miles when laden with four 40-foot ISO containers on its payload deck.
Its modular design means it will be able to accommodate a wide range of payloads, sensors, and weapon systems, and will be capable of launch and recovery of Remus uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), and smaller Romulus USVs, among others.
The USVs can be deployed individually or in swarms, and can be integrated with crewed assets to facilitate MUM-T (manned/unmanned teaming) refuelling and resupply missions.
Chris Kastner, HII president and CEO, commented: “By matching world-class shipbuilding with decades of unmanned systems expertise, we are delivering a mission-ready, swarm USV capability built for the next generation of operations.”
The firm’s press statement asserted: “Together, Romulus and Remus, powered by HII’s Odyssey autonomy, form a dual-domain family of unmanned platforms that expands operational reach, maximizes mission flexibility, and ensures dependable performance across the full maritime spectrum.”
It said the Odyssey software suite controlling Romulus is already operating across 30-plus USV platforms and has logged more than 6,000 operational hours in programmes run by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other international allies.
It noted: “Odyssey’s intuitive interface and enhanced, customizable features generate the required mission behaviors for greater lethality and survivability with simplified control of unmanned swarms across domains… The software suite’s open-access, government-aligned architecture enables rapid integration of new sensors, payloads, and third-party autonomy technologies.”
- You can read more details on the HII website