Maritime Tactical Systems (MARTAC) and Sealartec have conducted an autonomous at-sea refuelling demonstration of an unmanned surface vessel in collaboration with the US Navy.
During tests in August off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia, an autonomous refuelling system transferred 400 gallons (1,514 litres) of fuel to a navy-owned catamaran while underway.
The refuelling mechanism was deployed astern of the training support vessel USNS Vindicator, completing dozens of capture, refuelling and release evolutions and approximately 100 connection cycles.
Following market research, the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division selected the catamaran platform because of its hull stability for range instrumentation and docking alignment.
“Working directly with our industry partners allowed us to bring the platform, control systems, operators, and engineers together as one integrated team. We could make changes, test them on the water, and iterate quickly based on what we observed,” said Spencer Holloway, Director of the Blue Water Instrumentation Future Capabilities Office.
The project was sponsored by US Fleet Forces Command and Naval Surface Warfare Center divisions at Dahlgren and Carderock. Contracting support came from the Littoral Combat Ship Mission Modules Program Office and the navy’s Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Robotics and Autonomous Systems.
“Testing together in an operational environment allowed the team to identify improvements, apply lessons learned and refine future concepts of operation for unmanned maritime systems,” said Karl Van Deusen, Senior Vice President for Federal Business Development and Government Relations at MARTAC.
MARTAC said a mid-size workboat with a cruising range of 4,000 nautical miles (7,408 kilometres) is scheduled for delivery in spring 2027 and is intended to support autonomous vessel-to-vessel refuelling at sea.