U.S. begins design of unmanned Defiant ship
The United States has begun designing an unmanned surface ship that will be called Defiant.
Here's What We Know
The drone is being developed under the No Manning Required Shipprogram, which was organized by the U.S. Department of Defense's Office of Advanced Projects. The second phase will develop a test demonstrator of the unmanned ship.
Defiant's design will be created by Serco Inc. Notably, the Department of Defense decided to develop an unmanned ship from scratch, not using existing designs. Defiant will weigh 210 tons. As part of the second phase of the No Manning Required Ship program, the company will create a demonstration sample of the ship and conduct a series of tests before sending the drone to sea.
Not only Serco Inc. is working on Defiant, but a number of other companies as well. These include Thrust master of Texas, Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, Metron, Beier Integrated Systems, DRS Naval Power Systems Inc and Caterpillar.
Source: DARPA
Image: Defense Post
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