A new low-cost, rapidly deployable family of autonomous surface vessels from defense contractor Textron is currently in "high production" and is ready for the Defense Department and its allies, according to a company news release, although the Navy has not yet awarded a contract.
The vehicle family, called TSUNAMI, is deployable for ranges between 600 to over 1,000 nautical miles, and has a payload capacity of 1,000 pounds. New vessel sizes and configurations are possible as well, according to Textron.
Textron -- the maker of the common uncrewed surface vehicle -- has seen an increased level of interest in small, rapidly deployable, unmanned surface vehicles that can support other missions beyond mine countermeasure, the company’s Air, Land and Sea Systems Senior Vice President David Phillips told reporters last week.
Mine countermeasure systems tend to be expensive due to their required durability and protectiveness against mine blasts -- something not always necessary for certain missions, Phillips added.
“So, in reality, TSUNAMI really opens the door to support those kinds of missions and those use cases other than mine warfare, where a customer will be looking at a platform that is readily available, reliable, capable, scalable, and maybe most importantly, inexpensive,” he said.
Phillips acknowledged the Navy’s plans to thoroughly integrate unmanned systems throughout its operations, and said Textron has worked with the service on payload integrations besides mine countermeasures. The Navy is also a customer of Textron’s CUSV -- the service’s first small USV program of record -- which is currently deployed on littoral combat ships.
TSUNAMI will be able to provide flexibility for more missions beyond the CUSV’s capabilities, he added.
Despite this existing relationship with the Navy, Phillips said Textron’s goal is not to “wedge” TSUNAMI to fit within the Navy’s existing roadmap on unmanned integration.
“We've had discussions internationally, commercially, and with our own Navy about where they might be able to take this,” he told reporters. “I don't want to presuppose that. I've never been in the business of telling the Navy what they should do and what they should not do, just as I don't with the Army and the Marines and our other customers.”