Birdon and C&C Begin Building MUSVs for U.S. Navy Competition
Australian-owned marine engineering firm Birdon has begun building its first "tranche" of Medium Unmanned Surface Vessels for the long-awaited U.S. Navy MUSV program, and at a fast pace of one vessel every two months.
After several iterations of its MUSV acquisition strategy, the U.S. Navy has picked out seven different companies to compete for the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel program, including Sea Machines; Leidos; Saronic Technologies; Galliano Marine Services; PacMar Technologies; Birdon; and Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), many in partnership with other firms.
Birdon has partnered with autonomous navigation and control firm Mythos AI, based in Florida, for its underlying unmanned-systems technology. For construction, it has an agreement with New Orleans-area shipyard C&C Marine, a modern, high-automation fabrication facility. Birdon provides system integration, design and prime-contractor oversight.
The choice of an established shipyard was deliberate, aimed at satisfying the Navy's needs for rapid prototyping and delivery. C&C has been building and repairing working vessels for nearly three decades, and puts a premium on on-time, on-budget performance. It worked with Birdon previously on the Marine Corps' Ancillary Surface Craft (ASC), a prototype 150-foot beach landing vessel for combat logistics.
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Birdon has put C&C's immediate production-ready capability at front and center in the consortium's plans.
"Starting the build moves this effort from planning into execution. It demonstrates our certainty of delivery, founded on in-place - not promised - capacity," said Birdon President Kevin Mooney. "We are pairing production-ready engineering with a trusted serial manufacturer."
