Following the recent news that Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded seven contracts for the first phase of the No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) program;

Captain (Rtrd) Nurettin Sevi, Aerospace and Defense Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view on the situation:

“The US Department of Defense (DoD) has been making several investments in unmanned maritime vessels to adapt them to future naval force structure. Its decision to select Gibbs&Cox is no surprise, due to the company’s prestigious reputation in its 87-year history of shipbuilding and the close relationship between Gibbs&Cox and the US Navy. It is a trusted and proven company for US Navy and Coastgurd and has been taking important role in US Navy’s latest unmanned surface vehicle programs.

“While the company is relatively new in the unmanned surface vehicle (USV) space, Gibbs&Cox has been drawing attention in defense circles by taking important roles in unmanned surface vehicle (USV) designs. Its recent contractual activity – including Sea Train, NOMARS, medium unmanned surface vehicle (MSUV), and large unmanned surface vehicle (LSUV) programmes –  demonstrate the company’s rapid growth in the USV space.

“Gibbs&Cox’s main market is the US, and it has roles in all the latest contracts in the USV domain. If the company delivers these projects without any issues, it is expected to rise its share in US and later globally.

“DARPA’s Sea Train program aims to demonstrate long range deployment capabilities for a fleet of tactical USVs, while the NOMARS program seeks to maximize the seaframe performance and achieving sufficient maintenance and logistics functionality for long endurance operations with no human crew onboard.”