HII wins U.S. Navy contract for 10 ROMULUS USVs

HII said on 29 September 2026 that it had been awarded a U.S. Navy contract to build 10 ROMULUS unmanned surface vessels for the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel program. The company said the award marks a major step in the Navy’s transition from experimentation to fleet-scale deployment of autonomous capability at sea.

For traders and newer investors watching defence names, the key point is that the contract concerns production rather than a one-off trial. HII said it is now moving ROMULUS from design and development toward construction, and that it committed in 2025 to securing the partners, production capacity, supplier network and infrastructure needed for that shift.

HII said ROMULUS is built around its Odyssey Autonomous Control Solutions, which it described as a combat-tested autonomy suite. The company said Odyssey is designed to let unmanned systems perceive their surroundings, navigate, manage onboard systems and payloads, coordinate with other manned and unmanned platforms, and carry out complex missions with limited human intervention.

The company said it and its partners Applied Intuition, Greenroom Robotics and Rodi Marine completed the evaluation phase of the program. It said U.S. Navy-monitored testing took place in the Gulf of America over 13 days, and that the system completed a 420-nautical-mile mission simulation over 28 hours while meeting all established success criteria.

HII also said it is working with Gulf Coast build partners including Breaux Brothers Enterprises, Halimar Shipyard and Bayou Metal Supply & Manufacturing in Louisiana, and that ROMULUS is developed in partnership with Beier Integrated Systems and Incat Crowther. The company said it recently announced a new 10,000-square-foot expansion to add to its existing 40,000-square-foot unmanned manufacturing production campus for REMUS and ROMULUS systems.