Gibbs & Cox to Support DARPA on NOMARS Unmanned Surface Ship Program

The DLBA Division of Gibbs & Cox will support the Tactical Technology Office (TTO) of the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on its revolutionary No Manning Required, Ship (NOMARS) Program. The program will design, build, and field test an unmanned surface ship that can operate autonomously for long durations at sea with no human interventions or underway maintenance.

The team has been selected by DARPA to explore the trade space for clean-sheet vessel designs developed without any provision for crew on board. The intent of this effort is to create a paradigm shift in the design of marine surface vehicles from manned to unmanned platforms, while leveraging newly established and developmental technologies to increase capability, increase reliability, and reduce total ownership cost.

NOMARS is a two-phased program, with this first phase centered on trade space exploration, development of a clean-sheet concept design, and maturation of concept into a preliminary design.

A team of subject matter experts and industry leaders have been assembled to explore the many research areas of this program, some of which are: hull, mechanical and electrical systems; self-adaptive health monitoring and predictive analytics; power generation, distribution, and energy storage; as well as advanced depot based maintenance concepts.

The views, opinions, and/or findings expressed are those of the author(s) and should not be interpreted as representing the official views or policies of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.