Overview
- The Department of the Navy moved seven companies into MUSV at‑sea testing following a late‑May selection, with trials slated to start in June and finish by October 2026.
- Each company whose vessel completes the trials will receive $15 million and become eligible for follow‑on production contracts under the Navy’s MUSV marketplace rules.
- Saronic Technologies has launched its first Marauder hull and begun on‑water trials, and the company says multiple hulls are under construction and that its Franklin, Louisiana yard could reach about 20 vessels per year by the end of 2026; those production and performance claims have not yet been independently verified.
- The marketplace model requires commercial, modular MUSV designs that can carry containerized payloads and meet endurance and speed thresholds, a shift intended to let smaller and non‑traditional shipyards compete and shorten delivery timelines.
- Navy budget documents project growing MUSV buys — including roughly $171 million in FY2027 and about $3.1 billion over five years — but key technical hurdles remain, such as secure command‑and‑control, cyber resilience, and integration of uncrewed vessels with crewed fleets; the October test results will decide which designs move toward production.