Navy selects seven companies to move to at-sea MUSV testing

The Department of the Navy announced May 29 that it has selected seven companies’ entries to advance to the at-sea testing phase of the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) marketplace.

The seven companies selected to participate in the MUSV Family of Systems development are:

• Sea Machines
• Leidos
• Saronic Technologies
• Galliano Marine Services
• PacMar Technologies
• Birdon
• Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)

Companies whose MUSV successfully completes the at-sea test will receive $15 million and will be eligible for follow-on production. At-sea testing will begin next month and should be complete by October 2026.

The Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE), Robotics and Autonomous Systems’ (RAS) mission is to deliver hedge capabilities that expand naval power, increase operational persistence, and impose operational dilemmas that degrade adversary tempo and freedom of action.

The Navy says that the MUSV marketplace creates new opportunities for smaller, non-traditional shipyards to build the future fleet and that this initiative represents a strategic shift in naval acquisition, designed to rapidly field unmanned technologies by leveraging mature, existing commercial solutions.

The Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE), Robotics and Autonomous Systems’ (RAS) is one of six Portfolio Acquisition Executive organizations established by the Navy, which says it is making the PAE model “the new operational standard for the acquisition enterprise, injecting urgency and a ruthless focus on accelerated delivery.”