“Everything that we can knock off that list we will do in the archipelago…because that allows us to do the tests in the environment that the vessel will operate in ultimately,” said Maj. Gen. Jered Helwig.
“Envision a swarm of these autonomous vessels going out to various island chains … not having to beach because we're gonna have the UAVs come in, meet somewhere over the water, grab portions, and take that AOR’s portion … of ammo, food, blood,” said Rob Watts, the deputy director of the Army’s contested logistics cross-functional team.
Modeling and simulation get an AI upgrade for more realistic training and improved autonomous platforms.
“What we learned was, given the requirements we gave the vendor, it just was going to cost more. ... You don’t want to see that, but it’s going to happen sometimes," Army acquisition chief Doug Bush said.
With an Maneuver Support Vessel - Heavy competition on the horizon, the service is also working on the smaller MSV-L but is rebaselining the program to address design changes and increasing costs.