HII and Incat Crowther announce new boat design

Newport, Virginia-based Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has announced a new 190-foot autonomous boat, the Romulus 190, that is designed by Sydney-based Incat-Crowther.

The new Romulus design is part-built already and will be operational in 2026, says HII’s Duane Fotheringham. It is being built in a boatyard that HII bought especially for this project, Breaux Bothers boatyard in Louisiana. The US gulf coast has many boatbuilders who support the offshore oil industry and Romulus is based on a commercial design.

The Romulus 190 design is intended among other things to operate with crewed surface ships such as Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to see how uncrewed and crewed ships work together in something like a Surface Action Group (SAG).

The company does all of the platform autonomy system and software based on its Odyssey system, Fotheringham said; the Mission Autonomy system is Shield AI’s Hivemind system – this was Shield AI’s first Uncrewed Surface Vessel program. The initial craft will be Optionally Crewed, but the Romulus design is intended to be a fully autonomous vessel.

HII’s Remus Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) design, manufactured by US company Hydroid before it was taken over by HII, has equipped both the RAN and the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) for 18 years, says Fotheringham. The same part of HII now also manufactures the Romulus 190. The company has delivered more than 750 AUVs and some 70% are still in service.

Incat Crowther has designed more than 700 ships, says Brett Crowther, CEO of Incat Crowther.