HII has reported progress in the building of the prototype ship in its ROMULUS project for an entire family of uncrewed, autonomous vessels. The hull is being built by the Breaux Brothers Enterprises shipyard in Loreauville, Louisiana. The build has reached 30% completion and the vessel remains on schedule for sea trials in the fourth quarter of 2026.

ROMULUS is a modular vessel that can be fitted out for various roles and missions thanks to a large cargo deck allowing the embarkation of two rows abreasts of 20 or 40 feet containers (in total, 6 or 4 respectively on the ROMULUS 190, where 190 is the length in feet of the ship). The ship is meant to achieve speeds of over 25 knots, with a range of over 2,500 nautical miles.

ROMULUS is targeted at the needs of US and Allied armed forces. Construction in a small, commercial shipyard is a choice made specifically to prove that civilian standards of build can be employed to achieve both durability and rapid production. The project also involves the Australian firm Incat Cowther.

HII will equip ROMULUS with its ODYSSEY Autonomy Core, which is actually an already mature solution used on some 35 USV different platforms and over 750 REMUS-series uncrewed underwater vehicles.

ODYSSEY promises to allow open-ocean autonomous operations, multi-agent swarming, modular payload integration, and manned-unmanned teaming. HII is also working with Shield AI, Applied Intuition and C3 AI to further develop the autonomous core and facilitate lifecycle sustainment.  

In the last few days, HII has found another partner in Babcock in the UK. HII and Babcock already collaborate in a number of areas and in this latest announcement Babcock has looked to ROMULUS as the solution for offering the Royal Navy a first “autonomous escort ship” capability in 2027.

The urgency comes from the stated intent of Royal Navy First Sea Lord, Royal Marine General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, who wants to see the first uncrewed escort ship in testing within 2 years.

Babcock is now offering HII’s ROMULUS platform, with the Type 31 frigate poised to serve as the “flotilla leader”, the afloat command vessel controlling a number of uncrewed ships. The concept is being marketed under the name Autonomous and Remote, Maritime Operational Response (ARMOR) force: a Type 31 serving as Common Command Vessel (CCV) would control multiple ROMULUS USVs equipped for different missions through the Royal Navy’s own NavyPODS (Persistent Operational Deployment Systems) containerized mission modules.

The team behind ARMOR also includes the UK-founded company Arondite which brings to the table its COBALT operating system to serve as the mission orchestration layer across the force, “integrating crewed and uncrewed platforms into unified fleets that can be commanded from sea or shore”.

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