Calling shipbuilders: DRfP for LUSVs

The Navy is calling on the shipbuilding and design industry to come up with proposals for a Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle (LUSV) ship. The Navy wants 10 over a five-year period. The ships would function as scouts for a battle fleet, carry sophisticated radar and sonar, or floating weapons’ magazines with anti-air and cruise missiles. Above all, the ships will do what proponents call “3D work” - dull, dirty, and dangerous. The Navy’s Draft Request for Proposal (DRfP), posted on the FedBizOpps website, says: “The LUSV will be a high-endurance, reconfigurable ship able to accommodate various payloads for unmanned missions to augment the Navy’s manned surface force. With a large payload capacity, the LUSV will be designed to conduct a variety of warfare operations independently or in conjunction with manned surface combatants. The LUSV will be capable of semi-autonomous or fully autonomous operation, with operators in-the-loop (controlling remotely) or on-the-loop (enabled through autonomy).” The LUSVs will be up to 300 feet long with a displacement of about 2,000 tons and as a research and development program, officials told USNI News. The Navy plans to build two ships per year over five years. LUSV will be the largest unmanned ship to date, essentially a light frigate. The large unmanned ship will be generally unarmed, but with the ability to accept modular payloads of anti-ship missiles and land attack cruise missiles. LUSVs will also be capable of acting as scouts over the horizon ahead of manned ships to detect early threats. (Source: Popular Mechanics 08/16/19)