Global digital shipbuilder Incat Crowther celebrated the announcement that HII (NYSE: HII) was awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy to build ROMULUS unmanned surface vessels (USVs) for the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) program. The award marks a major advancement in the U.S. Navy’s transition from experimentation to fleet-scale deployment of trusted, operational autonomy across the maritime domain.

As a member of the ROMULUS USV team, Incat Crowther will continue to support ROMULUS by providing naval architecture and design services throughout the project via its Louisiana, USA-based team. The work builds on Incat Crowther’s track record of delivering highly capable vessel designs across broad market sectors for operators around the world, and its commitment to supporting the U.S. Navy and U.S. maritime industrial base.

“We are proud to partner with HII on ROMULUS and help deliver this important capability to the U.S. Navy,” said Grant Pecoraro, Managing Director – North America, Incat Crowther. “The award of this contract is validation of the ROMULUS design and the platform’s capabilities. The Navy's decision to select HII for this important program reflects its confidence in the work that Incat Crowther, HII and the rest of the project team have done, demonstrating our ability to deliver a highly capable vessel for the U.S. Navy. Our team of US-based naval architects and engineers are looking forward to continuing to support the HII team and the U.S. Navy as the program moves from autonomy proving trials and evaluation to a fleet-wide build and deployment."

“Unmanned vessels ultimately must be built, integrated, tested and sustained as part of a fleet,” said Duane Fotheringham, president of the Unmanned Systems group in HII’s Mission Technologies division. “As the nation’s largest shipbuilder, HII understands that challenge from both sides. By pairing our advanced cutting-edge technologies with Incat Crowther, we are creating a production capable of delivering reliable autonomous platforms at the pace and scale the U.S. Navy requires.”

ROMULUS is a modular family of AI-enabled USVs built on HII’s open-architecture Odyssey Advanced Autonomy Solutions and designed to meet current and emerging requirements for the U.S. Navy.

For ROMULUS, HII is combining that expertise with a distributed production model that leverages regional shipbuilders and manufacturing partners. This approach expands available production capacity, strengthens the U.S. maritime industrial base and enables vessels to be produced efficiently and repeatedly as U.S. Navy demand grows.

About HII

HII is America’s largest shipbuilder, delivering the world’s most powerful ships and all-domain mission technologies, including unmanned systems, to U.S. and allied defence customers. HII is the largest producer of unmanned underwater vehicles for the U.S. Navy and the world. With a more than 140-year history of advancing U.S. national security, HII builds and integrates defence capabilities extending from the core fleet to C6ISR, AI/ML, EW and synthetic training. Headquartered in Virginia, HII’s workforce is 45,000 strong. For more information, visit: