HII has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy to build 10 ROMULUS uncrewed surface vessels under the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) programme, the company stated.
The award forms one of three production agreements announced by the U.S. Navy on 29 September, with Galliano Marine Services and Saronic Technologies each also contracted for 10 vessels. The service said the agreements carry an average procurement cost of $40 million per vessel and that it expects the first MUSVs to be delivered before the end of fiscal year 2027.
Chris Kastner, HII president and chief executive, said in the release: “HII has made deliberate, early investments in the development of autonomous systems, advancing capabilities essential to the Navy’s hedge strategy.” He added: “We remain firmly committed to supporting the U.S. Navy’s vision and accelerating this critical capability from production to operational deployment.”
HII, best known as the builder of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and a large share of its submarines and amphibious ships, has been building up its uncrewed systems business for several years. Its 2020 acquisition of Hydroid from Kongsberg brought in the REMUS family of uncrewed underwater vehicles, of which the company says it has delivered more than 750 to customers in over 30 countries.
ROMULUS runs on HII’s Odyssey Autonomous Control Solutions software, which the company describes as a modular, open-architecture autonomy suite. According to HII, Odyssey enables vessels to perceive their surroundings, navigate, manage onboard systems and payloads and coordinate with crewed and uncrewed platforms with limited human intervention, while allowing new sensors, command-and-control tools and AI algorithms to be integrated as they become available.
The company said it completed the evaluation phase of the programme with partners Applied Intuition, Greenroom Robotics and Rodi Marine. Testing monitored by the U.S. Navy took place over 13 days in the Gulf of America, as the U.S. government now designates the Gulf of Mexico. HII said the most demanding event was a long-endurance mission simulation, in which its vessel completed a 420-nautical-mile mission over 28 hours and met all of the established success criteria.
Andy Green, president of HII’s Mission Technologies division, said: “Unmanned vessels ultimately must be built, integrated, tested and sustained as part of a fleet.” He continued: “As the nation’s largest shipbuilder, HII understands that challenge from both sides. By pairing our advanced cutting-edge technologies with our shipbuilding expertise, and leveraging experienced regional partners and suppliers, we are creating a production ecosystem capable of delivering reliable autonomous platforms at the pace and scale the U.S. Navy requires.”
Production will be spread across a network of smaller yards and suppliers. HII named Breaux Brothers Enterprises, Halimar Shipyard and Bayou Metal Supply & Manufacturing, all in Louisiana, as Gulf Coast build partners, with the vessel developed alongside Beier Integrated Systems and Australian naval architecture firm Incat Crowther. The company said it began securing partners, production capacity and infrastructure for ROMULUS in 2025, ahead of any production award.
HII has also announced a 10,000-square-foot expansion of its existing 40,000-square-foot uncrewed systems manufacturing campus, which builds both REMUS vehicles and ROMULUS vessels. Under the company’s model, major components and assemblies are produced in parallel before final vessel integration, an approach HII says is intended to raise throughput and allow production to scale across the wider ROMULUS family.
