
A Tsunami USV, pictured here, marries Textron's autonomy system with standard Brunswick hulls. (Textron Systems)
Textron Systems has unveiled a new family of low-cost, autonomous maritime surface vessels developed in conjunction with commercial boat builder Brunswick.
Named Tsunami, the new portfolio โ revealed in a 10 January media event in advance of the Surface Navy Association National Symposium 2025 that took place from 14 to 16 January โ leverages Textron's experience in maritime autonomy, most notably the Common Unmanned Surface Vessel (CUSV) now entering US Navy (USN) service in the mine-countermeasures (MCM) role. The product range, initially baselined around 24 ft (7.3 m), 25 ft (7.6 m), and 28 ft (8.6 m) variant hulls, is scaled to meet different range, endurance, and payload needs.
Textron said the launch of Tsunami has been driven by market demand for small, rapidly deployable unmanned surface vessels (USVs) that can support a variety of missions beyond MCM. These include intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; port security; escort operations; electronic warfare; test and experimentation; and training.
In a set of briefing slides shown on 15 January by USN Captain Matthew Lehmann, programme manager for Littoral Combat Ship Mission Modules and programme executive officer for Unmanned and Small Combatants, a picture of the Textron Tsunami 25 was displayed as part of the field of small USVs being accelerated, as Production-Ready, Inexpensive, Maritime Expeditionary (PRIME) Small Unmanned Surface Vehicle (sUSV), and the slide noted PRIME efforts are being ramped up.
For more information about some recent USN operations involving USVs, please seeCommon unmanned surface vehicle launches Poniard rockets during live-fire testing at RIMPAC .
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