The vessel is one of five ROMULUS 151 platforms now under construction at two shipyards in Louisiana. Breaux Brothers is building four at its New Iberia facility, while Halimar Shipyard is constructing the fifth in Morgan City.
The milestone moves the ROMULUS program further into physical production after development of its autonomous technology and modular design. HII is combining its autonomy systems and program management with established commercial shipbuilding capacity in Louisiana.
ROMULUS is a family of artificial intelligence-enabled unmanned surface vessels builtaway around an open architecture. The vessels use HII’s Odyssey Advanced Autonomy Solutions platform to support autonomous maritime operations.
The modular design allows sensors, payloads and mission systems to be configured for different operational requirements. HII is developing the platform for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, joint forces and allied customers.
Potential missions include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, mine countermeasures and strike operations. The vessels can also support counter-unmanned systems missions and launch or recover unmanned underwater and aerial vehicles.
The five-vessel build gives HII a production base for moving ROMULUS from design into operational hardware. The company said its work with Louisiana shipbuilders supports scalable manufacturing and future maritime readiness.
