US company Blue Water Autonomy is building an autonomous ship for the US Navy

The US Navy is set to receive an autonomous ship. The shipbuilding company Blue Water Autonomy from Boston has announced initial details about the first ship of the new class.

The Liberty, after which the entire class is named, is designed to operate autonomously in the Pacific for two to three months. The equipment for this will be housed in 40-foot containers, four of which will fit on the deck. These can accommodate systems for reconnaissance and communication, as well as weapon systems, for example.

The Liberty is just under 58 meters long and 9 meters wide. It can be loaded with 150 tons of payload. Its range is around 11.000 nautical miles (18.500 kilometers), and its speed is 25 knots (around 46 km/h).

Proven conventional basis

It is based on a conventional ship, the Stan Patrol 6009, from the Damen Group. The patrol vessels of the Dutch shipbuilding company are used by coast guards worldwide, among others. Blue Water Autonomy intends to convert these into an autonomous ship.

To this end, the propulsion system will be replaced first, the company announced. Blue Water Autonomy provides no information about the type of propulsion. However, autonomous ships are usually electrically powered. An electric motor requires less maintenance and is less prone to failure than a conventional ship engine. In addition to the propulsion, all other mechanical and electrical systems of the ship will be replaced with fault-tolerant ones.

Handover planned for end of 2026

The ship will be built at the Conrad shipyard in the US state of Louisiana. Conrad already has experience in building ship hulls designed by Damen. Work is scheduled to begin in March, and the ship is to be handed over to the US Navy later this year.

The Liberty-class ships are designed for long-term operation and are engineered for serial production, said Rylan Hamilton, CEO of Blue Water Autonomy. "By adapting a proven hull for unmanned operation, we are delivering a vessel that can be operated unmanned for extended periods and produced at a pace the Navy urgently needs."

The designation Liberty class is a reminiscence of the Liberty ships of World War II, which were produced quickly and in large numbers. Blue Water Autonomy plans to build ten to twenty Liberty-class ships per year in the future.

(wpl)