US Navy getting Defiant: Unmanned ship highlights innovation

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00:00The United States Navy is not the world's largest maritime force.

00:04China's People's Liberation Army Navy now holds that honor.

00:08However, the U.S. is unwilling to give up its title as the world's most powerful and

00:12innovative maritime force, so it's getting defiant.

00:18The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, better known as DARPA,

00:24just christened a new unmanned surface vessel, the USX-1 Defiant.

00:28The 180-foot-long, 42-foot-tall craft displaces about 529,000 pounds of water and has a top

00:38cruising speed of 20 knots.

00:40DARPA says it can dance with 30-foot waves and is designed to stay at sea for more than

00:46a year without a single human being on board.

00:50Defiant is the product of the No Manning Required Ship Program, or NOMARS.

00:55It builds on much of what the Navy learned while operating its ghost fleet over the last

01:00few years, which refers to a number of unmanned testing platforms like the Ranger.

01:06Turns out, when you don't have to worry about people, you can strip boats and ships down

01:10to the bare essentials—hull, propulsion, navigation, and weapons.

01:15The NOMARS program manager said Defiant is no wider than she must be to fit the largest

01:21piece of hardware.

01:23As the demonstrator for the NOMARS program, Defiant features a simplified hull design so

01:28that it can be easily replicated and repaired at any Tier 3 shipyard, places that typically

01:34cater to yachts, tugs, and workboats.

01:37DARPA says that once the Defiant completes the extended at-sea demonstration, proving its

01:43reliability and endurance, it will be turned over to the US Navy.

01:47At which time, it will be the fleet's first fully autonomous medium unmanned surface vessel.

01:54But it will not be the last.

01:56Congress just approved about $2.1 billion in funding back in July to develop, build, and

02:03integrate more USVs, which should go a long way to realizing Admiral Samuel Paparo's vision

02:09of a drone hellscape to counter China in the Western Pacific.

02:14You can hear more about that by checking out our website, SAN.com, or downloading the Straight

02:20Arrow News app today.