Navy awards 'Overlord' second-phase contract mods to undisclosed companies

The Navy this week said it began the second phase of a secretive unmanned surface vessel program but is still not disclosing what industry teams are participating.

"The second phase of the Ghost Fleet Overlord program commenced with the award of contract modifications to the two industry teams who participated in Phase I," the service said in an Oct. 1 statement. The service did not state the value of the contracts.

Overlord is an experimental USV developed by the Pentagon's Strategic Capabilities Office and has become the basis for the Navy's Large Unmanned Surface Vessel. The Pentagon last year awarded phase one Overlord contracts to two industry teams, but at the time did not disclose which vendors received the contracts.

Inside Defense first reported in October that L3Harris subsidiary ASV Global and the maritime technology firm Gibbs & Cox were the two awardees.

"Phase II will be conducted using the same ships from Phase I and will focus on the integration of government-furnished command-and-control systems and payloads and involve more complex and challenging naval experimentation," according to the Navy statement.

"Phase II will complete in Fiscal Year 2021 at which point the Overlord vessels will transition to the Navy for further experimentation," the statement continued.

Defense Department spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Carver declined to comment on which contractors are participating in the Overlord program.

Representatives from the two companies did not immediately return requests for comment.