HII wins Navy contract for 10 ROMULUS USVs

HII said on Sept. 29, 2026 that the U.S. Navy awarded it a contract to build 10 ROMULUS unmanned surface vessels for the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel, or MUSV, program.

The company said the award marks a move from experimentation toward fleet-scale deployment of autonomous capability across the maritime domain, and that its Odyssey Autonomous Control Solutions suite sits at the core of ROMULUS.

HII said Odyssey is a modular, open-architecture autonomy suite 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.

HII said it and its partners Applied Intuition, Greenroom Robotics and Rodi Marine completed the evaluation phase of the MUSV program, and that the Navy-monitored testing took place in the Gulf of America over 13 days.

The company said the most rigorous event was a long-endurance mission simulation that the system completed over 420 nautical miles in 28 hours, meeting all established success criteria.

HII also said that in 2025 it committed to securing partners, production capacity, supplier network and infrastructure for ROMULUS, and that it recently announced a new 10,000-square-foot expansion to its existing 40,000-square-foot unmanned manufacturing production campus.

The company 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 being developed in partnership with Beier Integrated Systems and Incat Crowther.

HII said it has delivered more than 750 REMUS unmanned underwater vehicles to customers in more than 30 countries, and described itself as America’s largest shipbuilder.