Liberty-class ships: The US is stepping up the development of an unmanned fleet.

The United States is intensifying efforts to develop unmanned maritime vessels for a wide range of operations. One of the largest such projects is the construction of autonomous, automated Liberty-class ships.

These unmanned vessels, 60 meters long, will be built at Conrad Shipyard beginning in March 2026. The Stan Patrol 6009 hull standard has been selected for implementation. This hull, with its patented Axe Bow bow, developed with the assistance of specialists from Delft University of Technology, minimizes drag from wave impacts.

The first unmanned Liberty vessel is expected to be built by the end of this year. At least, that's the plan announced by Damen and Blue Water Autonomy, the companies that have partnered to implement the project.

During the presentation, it was stated that the ships are designed for long-term unmanned operations, providing a cruising range of over 10 nautical miles. The carrying capacity of these vessels will be at least 150 tons.

Liberty ships are designed to support logistics missions as well as military operations.

Blue Water Autonomy CEO Rylan Hamilton:

The Liberty class reflects our focus on developing autonomous ships, designed from the ground up for long-term operations and mass production. By adapting a proven hull and redesigning it for unmanned operations, we are creating a vessel capable of operating for extended periods without a crew, while delivering at the pace the Navy desperately needs. It's a modern take on an old idea: rapid and large-scale construction of capable ships.

There are plans to scale up production to 20 such ships per year. The total contract value has not yet been announced.

Comments

[Same lech]

60 meters drone...however!!!

[Mouse]

What child would not play ....

[Foggy Dew]

6 40-foot containers with a carrying capacity... Totally worthless. And it looks like it'll be hard to unload anything onto the pier itself...

[Yuri_I]

creation of an unmanned fleet

If you meet a ship without a crew in the ocean, whose does it become?

[sub307]

Such ships used to be called "flying Dutchmen." Meeting one didn't bode well...

[Ivan Mak_2]

In light of the seizures of tankers carrying Russian oil, I wonder if a military vessel is allowed to immediately sink such drones upon encounter, or would this be considered an act of aggression?

[Michael]

Quote: Yuri_Ya

If you meet a ship without a crew in the ocean, whose does it become?

Until recently, whoever found a ship without a crew took that ship for himself.
But now you can even take it with the crew.
Not for everyone, but it is possible.

[Zoldat_A]

Quote: Michael

Until recently, whoever found a ship without a crew took that ship for himself.

Here on VO, some time ago there was a discussion about supply drones that, I believe, Australia decided to develop.
I then wondered: whose would this unmanned, unarmed vessel, sloshing slowly through the ocean, become? The first one to encounter it?
I was told that a very reliable way to discourage those who want to pirate is if, when an attempt is made to capture them, they start to fly into the air along with the captors.

I'm talking about our captured ships - is it possible to use this method of "self-defense" here?
Maritime law doesn't allow us to put troops on a tanker (they don't have any problems with maritime law—they don't give a damn). But who forbids blowing up their own property during an attempted seizure? And it could very well explode "on its own"—it's just a coincidence—as soon as a seizure occurs, it explodes.
A tanker burning in the middle of the English Channel or in a British port, with their firefighters fussing around senselessly – such a picture, I think, would warm the hearts of many in Russia...

[Boa kaa]

Quote: Zoldat_A

But who's stopping you from blowing up your own property during an attempted seizure? And it could very well explode "on its own"—it's just a coincidence—as soon as it's seized, it explodes.

Are you talking about fire ships? I don't feel sorry for them: they're worth a ruble on a market day. But here, the value of the cargo could exceed half the value of the "Zimbabwe fleet"! And they'll probably be sailing under the watchful eye of satellites, and any deviation from the route would be immediately detected by the navigator.
And then—please shave! and have a clear understanding with the Navy of the country that owns the BEK... How do you like that prospect?

[Zoldat_A]

Quote: Boa constrictor KAA

Are you talking about fire ships?

I'm not a little about that.
I said that someone could capture these barges without crew and weapons.
I was told that a good way to discourage "invaders" is to have these "trucks" explode when they're hijacked. Sooner or later, the "invaders" will say, "To hell with them, they explode..."

And I was just saying, couldn't we use the same principle to ensure the defense of our tankers? A couple of them would explode in a narrow shipping lane or in an invader's port, and the number of people willing to seize our tankers would immediately decrease.
As for the cost of the cargo (oil) - who cares... What difference does it make whether this oil burns in the English Channel or in a British port (preferably, along with the port), or whether the Brits download it and sell it?

[Boa kaa]

Quote: Michael

Until recently, whoever found a ship without a crew took that ship for himself.

Are you talking about prize rights?
That is, until the owner claims it. After that, there's the "salvage reward." Yes, the ship should be insured, preferably at Lloyd's, so that the brazen Saxon bastards don't classify it as a "shadow fleet"... Insurance shouldn't be siphoned off! How could it be otherwise!!!

[Chack wessel]

And it depends on whose ship it is and who will meet it.

[RuAbel]

Not a bad idea for patrolling the Western Hemisphere under the Donro Doctrine. Floating refueling/resupply bases could also be positioned at key points, and Washington would have its backyard under lock and key. These "wolf packs" would also block drug trafficking (if necessary) and stop uninvited humanitarian convoys.

[bondov]

Robotization is also in full swing in Russia—millions of anthropomorphic, humanoid robots are being imported from India and North Asia—the most advanced ones. China stopped exporting modern machine tools to Russia in the fall of 2025, and they account for about 60% of Russia's machine tools—that's what Boglaev claims. They probably stopped so Russia wouldn't get too carried away with the US and all those Anchorage spirits. That's just it.

[Ross xnumx]

We need to adopt this technique, then not every red-headed president will dare to block offshore waters with his fleet... And also make them semi-submersible - a semi-tanker approaches, unloads a hundred or so BEKs and goes back, and these ones go to the target...

[bondov]

and these went to the target.

Are the Tajiks going to push it?

[Bayun]

The destiny of Rus' is the land. Britain is the seas. A historical international division of life and existence.

The future belongs to transformable floating-driving-flying drones. It's strange that no one has made an amphibious cart yet. It would be a great thing for resupplying bridgeheads across water obstacles.

[Foggy Dew]

Bgg))) Two centuries of maritime history, and before that, everyone was chasing them—from the Normans to the Irish. And to venture into the Mediterranean under the Ottomans, or even earlier, under the Hanseatic League, was a good way to commit suicide. Then the Spanish and Dutch chased them, and after WWII, there was nothing left to chase due to the lack of a navy.
Britain's destiny is sheep, which is why the Speaker of the House of Lords still sits on a sack of wool, so there are no seas, but continuous fencing

[Bayun]

By "Britain," I mean the entire English-speaking world and its satellites, from Japan and South Korea to NATO. Sorry, I should have clarified that right away. So, about the "cowherds" and "fencing and its consequences."(Sixth grade in a Soviet school? And about the Netherlands, I think?) you definitely won't giggle...

[Foggy Dew]

If we're going to be picky, the Netherlands has only been around since 2020, and we still have to dig around to find out where the word "Dutch" came from. In Russia, the country has been called nothing other than Holland since Peter the Great. As for the colonies, it's a good statement to call the US an integral part of the "mistress of the seas," when even their civilian naval support was quite successfully provided by the Russian navy, which, by the way, prevented Britain from blockading the United States. And there's a whole bunch of other stuff, like the fact that even in WWII there wasn't really any mistress after the Prince of Wales and Repulse were drowned in the East—there was no one left to sail there to protect the British.
Otherwise, everything is the same: 17th-19th centuries, with a bit of the 20th.
And once again, regarding wool - this is an indisputable fact, the empire arose on the wool trade across the strait - and no fairy tales about tea are relevant here.

[Bayun]

In essence, only two Russian fleets make sense: the Northern and the Pacific.

With all due respect to the Baltic and Black Sea fleets, in the modern realities of war, they are more suited to be flotillas of small river-sea missile armored boats.

[Boa kaa]

Quote: Bayun

The destiny of Rus' is land. Britain - the seas.

Damn! How messed up everything is...
You, sir, have not yet grown up to the level of the Duma clerks of 1620!
What impenetrable ignorance! Stop wandering in the dark about Mackinder's doctrine, which he conceived back in the shaggy year of 1904 and presented to the public in his article "The Geographical Pivot of History"! So much has been said and rehashed about this, you can't count it on your fingers!

[Bayun]

Do you have something to counter the former director of the London School of Economics and Political Science? Please do so. Preferably in one line.

[Boa kaa]

Quote: Bayun

If you please. Preferably, also on one line.

1. Maritime border – 72% of the total length of the state border.
(Of Russia's 60,939 km of state border, 38,807 km (or 72%) are maritime borders. The northern and eastern borders are maritime.)
2. The Russian Navy ranks third in the world rankings, behind the United States and China.
(The Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in its report "Maritime Powers 2025," ranked Russia third in the ranking of leading maritime powers based on the Naval Fleet Index (NFI). The leaders were the United States (first place) and China (second place).
By the way, the Royal Navy of Great Britain ranks 9th in the global ranking of military fleets of the world according to the website WDMMW.org.
But England, for some reason a “great maritime power”, forgets to add – in the PAST!

[Bayun]

I apologize for my oversight in misleading you. By "Britain," of course, I don't mean decrepit old England, but the entire English-speaking world and its satellites like South Korea and Japan.

And here, the comparison, I think you will agree, is not at all in our favor. And "in the vastness of the big blue ocean" They will have many more bases, ships and everything else.

[Boa kaa]

Colleague, I actually took issue with your not entirely accurate statement: Quote: Bayun
The destiny of Rus' is land. Britain - the seas.
It would be fair to say: Russia is a CONTINENTAL power, and Britain is a maritime one (because it is an ISLAND! if you don’t count the colonies and dominions...)

[grandfather_Kostya]

The sea is the sea, and if anything happens, there's no one to worry about. Bottom line: a fine little vessel!

[snow mountain]

Quote: The same LYOKHA

60 meters drone...however!!!

Why not? It's not disposable.

[Foggy Dew]

Like the first Liberty - for one flight)

[voyaka uh]

The first Liberty ships, delivered to the USSR under Lend-Lease, served in the Soviet fleet until the 70s. Thousands of voyages.

[Foggy Dew]

The feat of Russian sailors, who forced even such Frankensteins not to fall apart while sailing, is immortal.

[Boa kaa]

The ships were described as being designed for long-term unmanned operations, providing a cruising range of over 10 nautical miles. The carrying capacity of these vessels will be at least 150 tons.

The Americans see the solution to submarine warfare problems in equipping the BOHR with swarms of unmanned submarines... Moreover, they offer autonomy, a range (!) of up to 10,000 miles (the dream of any submarine commander!), and a 150-ton payload! And in containers... This is about the modularity of the surface ship, if you approach it intelligently, based on a high-tech production base, and equipping this whole mess with "artificial brains" (intelligence clearly won't be enough, since "smartness" is also needed and important at sea!). So there you have the answer to the question: how are they planning (or at least trying to) fight the 2M39 (!) and our nuclear-powered missile ships?
Damn! Trump's really taken this "marathon" seriously. And then there's space... and the "Golden Dome" with its space echelon...
No, damn it, it's time to end the SVO and get down to business: economics, science, production. Otherwise, we'll have to stop NATU at the walls of Moscow again.
P.S. If you're a fan of "cons," don't worry. I haven't cared about them for a long time.
AHA

[ada]

Quote: Boa constrictor KAA

... No, damn, it's time to finish the SVO and get down to business:

Greetings!
Well, the SVO is precisely the "business" that is necessary in one form or another (military or special; in fact, all of them are combined and are conducted against the backdrop of the private political game of the military-political plan and the implementation of the military-political plan) in the pre-war period. It is an element of the implementation of a whole series of long-term military planning measures aimed at creating a better position for oneself at the outbreak of a military conflict than existed previously and is usually carried out using the armed forces or their use in advance during a period of increasing military threats or their anticipation.
At the present moment in time, based on the developing situation and the current military threat situation (observed simply "on TV"), as well as the probabilities of its development (speculatively "on the fingers"), it is possible to assume the need to conduct a whole series of similar operations with the use/use of the Armed Forces, including the Armed Forces of the allies (both independently and in a coalition manner) in a number of adjacent areas and in remote regions, including the transition of the GG and the occupation of the required areas (water areas).
The Americans, too, are busy with pre-war configurations, and it's "to our liking." They are consistently implementing their long-term planning, not all elements, not always in full, according to plan and within the planned timeframe, but consistently and relentlessly.

Have you noticed an interesting feature?

Quote: Boa constrictor KAA

...This is about the modularity of the NK...

We need to monitor their success and see if they can scale it up to their full industrial capacity.

Quote: Boa constrictor KAA

... "Resourcefulness" is also needed and important at sea! ...

Well, they'll install another container - a module for the "living" ones.

[Boa kaa]

Quote: ada

We need to watch their progress...

Colleague! It seems to me that the "SVO" method of preparing the country and its population for military conflicts and wars of varying scales is too expensive. Don't you think so? Yes, it (the SVO) shook up the swamp of everyday life, cleared the country and the Armed Forces of dead weight. But no one will bring back human lives! And the material costs are also considerable.
Yankees, whales, and other capitalists are digging deep into the ground, building entire underground cities. Here, only Sobyanin is digging the subway... But that's far from a city with a full life-support system, reserves, and cultural infrastructure!
The most disgusting thing is that they've stopped fearing us as a force capable of causing unacceptable damage to all of Western society. No one ever really liked us, but at least they were afraid! Now even the three-bold border states are demanding NATO deal with the Russians! And Leopold the Cat didn't even shut off their oil pipelines. It's a good thing they figured out how to disconnect from the power grid themselves, otherwise they would have been sucking down electricity at rock-bottom prices (the contracts were signed for 20 years, at the prices they were paid at the time they were signed). And all this so the West would look favorably on us! Stalin didn't care what the West thought of us. He was thinking about the country, not his Swiss bank account!
So, it's time to end the SVO – decisively, and if it comes down to it – even bloodily! And it's time to take care of the country. Prepare the people for the coming years of hardship. Otherwise, it will be too late: biting your elbows WON'T GET FED!!!

[ada]

Sorry, I'm short, I don't have time.

Quote: Boa constrictor KAA

...it is too expensive to prepare the country and its population for military conflicts using the "SVO" method...

You see, there are "offers" that can't be refused, but accepting them is costly, and this is where another rule comes into play: an action that is unexpected for the enemy (based on a number of factors). While the balance of losses and gains (military) in the Central Military District, in our response to the US initiating a previously established factor of influence on the situation and the immediate escalation of the border armed conflict in Donbas to a military level, is in our favor, and with the destruction of the energy and transport infrastructure of the Ukrainian (conventional) theater of military operations against the backdrop of a sharp decline in the military potential of the proximal Armed Forces (Ukrainian Armed Forces), it is possible to fairly accurately predict the disruption of all long-term US and US-NATO planning in this area. This effectively means that planned development of the Middle East will no longer be possible. The US will have to develop new plans and abandon a number of elements already in place and mastered by troops (both US and NATO). This, in the absence of a nuclear precedent and the compromise of a number of genuine private (military) objectives, forces them to "retreat" somewhat and seek "time"—to introduce a negotiating process where compromises will be necessary, including on the direct impact on the escalation level in the Middle East. Simply put, this is a "breathing space" for us that was not previously planned for, and it must be used wisely.
It is expected that the Central Military District will continue under any circumstances of the international and domestic situation, in approximately the same format (this is a long-term undertaking, not conceived yesterday, not the day before yesterday, and not...). If the situation worsens, it will directly transition, through individual fronts, into the general body of the war at its initial stage. The timing of the start of a major military conflict in Europe, in the absence of a modern nuclear precedent, is most likely influenced by the military situation in the Middle East and the revival of factors influencing the situation in Belarus, directly in our country, and a number of secondary factors globally. If the Americans succeed in provoking a nuclear conflict in the Middle East (desirable) or another one that affects the enforcement of WMD, the timing will be sharply reduced.
I don't know how this qualifies as "expensive" or "cheap," but if I were to put it simply, it's "very cheap," practically "free." My only fear is whether the horse will be forced to pay the price, because under any previous "scheme," holding territory and maintaining a reasonable population wasn't an option, and the horse isn't even "rolling around"—it's "dancing and singing."

[Andriuha077]

There were smaller ones, there were bigger ones.
The hull length of the American unmanned surface vessel (USV) Nomad is approximately 40 meters (according to some sources - about 130-140 feet).
The length of the experimental U.S. robotic vehicle (OUSV2) Ranger is approximately 52 meters.
The Vanguard unmanned surface vehicle (USV) (OUSV3), developed for the U.S. Navy under the Overlord program (launched January 2024), belongs to the Large USV (LUSV) class, which ranges from 200 to 300 feet in length. That's approximately 60 to 90 meters. Unlike those two, it is built from the ground up for autonomous operations.

On March 25, 2025, the Congressional Research Service released an interesting report, "Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles: Background and Issues for Congress."

Among the Navy's programs to develop and acquire unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and undersea vehicles (UUVs) of various sizes are programs to develop two large USVs, the Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle (LUSV) and the Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV), and a program to develop a large UUV called the Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV), also known as "Orca."

The Navy envisions LUSVs to be 60 to 90 meters long and displace 1000 to 2000 tons, making them corvette-sized (i.e., larger than a patrol vessel but smaller than a frigate). The LUSV could be equipped with a vertical launch system with 16 to 32 missile launchers. A small crew is being considered.
The first LUSV will be procured in fiscal year 2027 at an estimated cost of $497,6 million.

MUSVs are considered to be vessels less than 60 meters in length and displacing less than 500 tons, making them about the size of a patrol vessel. The initial payload for MUSVVs would be systems to support intelligence, surveillance, targeting, countermeasures, and information operations.
The first MUSVs will be purchased between 2025 and 2029.

XLUUV (Orca) - The Navy wants to use the XLUUV to covertly deliver the Hammerhead mine, which will be laid on the seabed and equipped with an anti-submarine torpedo.
In addition to the five Orca hulls built, four more will be delivered between 2026 and 2029.

Do we have it?
Do we even have plans? At least clear statements of them?
Who is responsible for this direction? Is there one?
Then... Let's keep smiling!

Threat to navigation caused by ships abandoned by their crews
10. Ownership of a vessel abandoned by its crew
11. The fate of the flag on an abandoned ship

[Ban Zai]

I dare to suggest that initially they will be used in conjunction with crew vessels, in what format, the Maritimes have a better idea of ​​the capabilities and potential of these, undoubtedly promising vessels, which must be tested and studied