Serco-Led Team Completes DARPA Naval Drone Program's Conceptual Design Phase

An industry team led by Serco Group‘s U.S. subsidiary has completed conceptual design work for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program that aims to build and demonstrate an unmanned surface vessel capable of long-duration autonomous operations at sea.

DARPA downselected Serco Inc.’s Voyager team to move into the preliminary design phase of the No Manning Required Ship program following completion of an X-ship technology demonstrator concept, the company said Thursday.

The Hernon, Virginia-based contractor applied its Design Space Exploration platform to analyze machinery and hull structure options during NOMARS Phase 1A work.

The Serco-Metron-Wartsila team will also define system requirements for a future review phase and hopes to advance to the program’s second phase, which will involve risk reduction, construction and initial at-sea demonstration efforts.

DARPA expects to award Phase 2 contracts in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 and conduct a demo event by the third quarter of FY 2024.

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