Eric Chewning and Andy Green tout MUSV at WEST 2026
Inside Defense reported on Feb. 12 that defense contractors are spotlighting their medium unmanned surface vessels as the Navy prepares to launch a Modular Attack Surface Craft (MASC) prototyping phase in 2026. Among the platforms drawing attention is HII’s ROMULUS USV.
According to the report from the WEST Conference, which took place Feb. 10-12 in San Diego, ROMULUS uses HII’s Odyssey autonomous control system and offers a 2,500‑nautical‑mile range while carrying four containerized payloads—capabilities that align with the Navy’s vision for medium-class uncrewed vessels.
“All I can say about MASC is we’ve heard we’ve got a great platform with ROMULUS,” said Eric Chewning, HII executive vice president for maritime systems and corporate strategy.
HII Mission Technologies President Andy Green emphasized that the company anticipated the Navy’s growing demand for autonomous systems well in advance.
“We wanted to get out in front of where we thought the Navy was going,” Green said. “All the signals we got were that, in order to get the volume at sea they want—and the number of sensors or kinetic weapons at sea—they were going to have to leverage the autonomous vessel market.”
ROMULUS is currently under construction at Breaux Brothers Shipyard in Louisiana and is scheduled to begin at‑sea testing later this year.
Read the full story at insidedefense.com (subscription required). Watch HII’s newest ROMULUS video on YouTube.
