General David H. Berger’s
Commandant’s Planning Guidance (CPG) says “The Marine Corps will be trained and equipped as a naval expeditionary force-in-readiness and prepared to operate inside actively contested maritime spaces in support of fleet operations.” The CPG also highlights force design and the need to divest the Corps of legacy equipment and programs that do not meet future requirements. And it repositions the Marine Corps’ Fleet Marine Forces under the operational control of the Fleet Commander.
As the naval service reflects on potential operations inside an adversary’s antiaccess/area-denial (A2/AD) weapons engagement zone, it needs to consider what systems and platforms will be required. The amphibious fleet and littoral maneuver craft must be more agile and more lethal, present reduced signatures, be more specialized and affordable/maintainable, and some may be optionally manned.
Ghost Fleet Overlord USV participates in ‘Dawn Blitz exercise
19 January 2021
by Richard Scott
An experimental Ghost Fleet Overlord unmanned surface vehicle (USV) has participated in a major amphibious exercise on the US Pacific coast, having previously transited over 4,700 n miles almost entirely autonomously.
Developed under a partnership between the US Department of Defense (DoD) and the US Navy (USN) through the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO), the Overlord initiative is a joint programme designed to accelerate navy efforts to develop USVs and demonstrate increasingly capable autonomous behaviours. Outputs from the programme are informing the USN’s Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle (LUSV) acquisition effort.
Navy issues RFP for Snakehead underwater drone
Written by
Marine Log Staff
The Navy’s Program Executive Office Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) reports that the Navy has released a request for proposals (RFP) on for the design, development, and fabrication of the Large Displacement Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (LDUUV) program, also known as Snakehead.
It will be the largest underwater drone that Navy submarines can deploy.
With this solicitation, says PEO USC, the government plans to competitively award a contract to a single vendor for fabrication of two prototype vehicles in fiscal year (FY) 2021. Proposals are expected in early 2021.