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Defiant NOMARS Uncrewed Ship Is the Future of Naval Warfare, Looks Like a Beach Slipper

There is no doubt in the military’s mind that the future of warfare comes in the form of drones of all shapes and sizes. As clearly demonstrated by the war in Ukraine, drones do not only keep their operators safe some distance away from the heat of the battle, but are also highly effective against weapons systems that were traditionally considered very hard to defeat. Like, say, tanks.
Serco Defiant NOMARS 6 photos
Photo: DARPA
NOMARS conceptNOMARS conceptNOMARS conceptSerco Defiant NOMARSNOMARS concept
In our day and time, most of the drones now in military use are airborne, but that doesn’t mean research isn’t ongoing on other such machines. Over here in the U.S., the military places great emphasis on coming up with uncrewed watercraft that can be used in combat and support missions.

One such watercraft is the so-called No Manning Required Ship. NOMARS for short, it was announced by DARPA more than a year ago as a ship designed to never hold a human on board. As such, novel design approaches opened up for the companies that signed up for the project.

That was the program's Phase 1, and this week DARPA announced it is moving ahead with Phase 2, which in effect means a NOMARS ship will be built and tested. The winning design is called Defiant (no relation to the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant helicopter) and was put together by a company called Serco.

A rendering of the thing is featured as the main photo of this piece. It’s a floating platform with no room whatsoever for crew (and it kind of looks like a beach slipper because of that), but more than capable of carrying “a significant payload at tactically useful ranges.” 

As envisioned by Serco, the Defiant is a medium unmanned surface vessel (MUSV), tipping the scales at 210 metric tons and capable of reaching speeds of up to 15 knots (17 mph/27 kph).

No exact technical details were provided, but we are told the fact the ship was not meant for human operation meant new ideas had to be designed for power generation, propulsion, machinery line-up, and control schemes.

“NOMARS plans to demonstrate a next-generation completely unmanned ship that will enable entirely new concepts of operations,” said in a statement Gregory Avicola, program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office.

“We will enable methods of deploying and maintaining very large fleets of unmanned surface vessels that can serve as partners, across the globe, for the larger crewed combatants of the U.S. Navy.”

After the Defiant is built, Serco is tasked with performing a series of tests and then taking the thing out to sea for a three-month mission. No info was provided on when that is supposed to happen.

Serco is not alone in this, as it will work on the project with Beier Integrated Systems, Caterpillar, DRS Naval Power Systems, ICE FLOE, Metron, Submergence Group, and Thrustmaster.
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Editor's note: Gallery shows various NOMARS concepts.

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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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