Textron systems’ CUSV excels during SUMMIT demonstration

Textron Systems Advanced Systems, an operating unit of Textron Systems, recently announced that its common unmanned surface vessel (CUSV) has successfully completed the supervision of unmanned vehicles mission management by interactive teams (SUMMIT) demonstration sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). During the 10-day demonstration, the CUSV executed littoral combat ship (LCS) mine countermeasure missions as commanded by the SUMMIT software-based management system.

“This event brought together many promising technologies for evaluation under relevant operational scenarios,” says Donald Hairston, Textron Systems Advanced Systems Senior Vice President and General Manager. “our CUSV exceeded 90 per cent mission availability during the exercise, and more importantly, demonstrated its ability to integrate seamlessly with naval assets to perform critical mine countermeasure missions safely and efficiently.

“Our CUSV incorporates a reconfigurable payload bay, as well as an open architecture utilising commercial, off-the-shelf components. That has allowed us to easily integrate new payloads and capabilities to effectively execute the many mission profiles required for these various events,” Hairston added.