On July 29, the Defense Innovation Unit of the US Department of Defense announced a competition for the development of unmanned surface vessels (USV) integrated with strike drones. The program has been named SWAP-USV (Suitable Warfighting Adaptive Payloads) and provides for a prize fund of up to $100 million.

The agency cites the reason for launching the program as an unfavorable cost-exchange ratio between interception costs and threat costs. Adversaries employ cheap, low-observable means: explosive unmanned boats, small UAVs, fast smuggling vessels, and semi-submersible craft. The Pentagon, however, is currently forced to respond to them with multi-million-dollar ships and aircraft designed for peer-on-peer combat.

According to the requirements, participants must present a mature, serially manufactured unmanned boat fully integrated with at least two production-ready strike drones. The vessel must have a range of no less than 200 nautical miles and a cruising speed of at least 10 knots.

The pair of drones aboard the vessel must deliver a strike effect with a combined payload of at least 2 kg and the capability to assess strike results. The customer seeks a combination of reusable reconnaissance drones and expendable strike platforms, with both types required to have a confirmed serial production line.

Functionality expected of the system:

  • autonomous transit to designated waypoints, area patrolling, and loitering on station;
  • detection, identification, and tracking of surface targets using onboard sensors and launched drones;
  • autonomous pursuit and interception of a non-cooperative maneuvering vessel;
  • operation under degraded, intermittent, or limited communications and in the absence of satellite navigation signals.

Logistics requirements are separately specified: the system must be deployable from a standard road trailer, a cargo container (40-foot equivalent), or C-17 and C-130 transport aircraft. The ability to launch the vessel from unimproved positions or directly from the container will be assessed by DIU as an advantage.

Notably, the requirement to combine a carrier vessel with a pair of strike drones on board conceptually mirrors what Ukrainian operators from the GUR and SBU are already implementing in the Black Sea. Vessels of the Magura and Sea Baby type have evolved from ship-strike platforms into mobile launch platforms for aerial drones. They have been used, among other things, for strikes against ground targets in the occupied part of Kherson Oblast and against gas platforms in the Black Sea.