VESSEL REVIEW | Defiant – Scalable proof-of-concept USV developed for US Navy

The 180-foot (55-metre), 240-tonne USV was designed to be different from some of the optionally manned autonomous surface vessels being developed by the US Navy.

According to DARPA, the NOMARS program aims to divert from the traditional naval architecture model by designing a seaframe (i.e., the ship without mission systems) from the ground up with no provision, allowance, or expectation for humans on board.

DARPA remarked that by removing the human element from all ship design considerations, the NOMARS program intends to demonstrate significant advantages, to include: size, cost, at-sea reliability, greater hydrodynamic efficiency, survivability to sea-state, and survivability to adversary actions through stealth considerations and tampering resistance.