The DLBA division of naval architecture firm Gibbs and Cox has been selected to support the No Manning Required, Ship (NOMARS) programme of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The programme, which will be run by DARPA's Tactical Technology Office (TTO), 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.
NOMARS is a two-phased programme, with this first phase centered on trade space exploration, development of a clean-sheet concept design, and maturation of concept into a preliminary design.
DLBA has assembled a team of subject matter experts and industry leaders to explore the many research areas of this programme, 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.
