ARMOR
ARMOR autonomous maritime vessel cutting across rough coastal water

Scan/AR-01

ARMOR

Classified autonomous vessel anatomy: hull, mast, sensor channels, and fleet telemetry rendered as a forensic maritime scan.

View Anatomy Request Brief
01 Autonomous patrol 02 Littoral surveillance 03 Fleet coordination
Hull Anatomy
Three sleek dark autonomous surface vessels operating in formation across coastal water
FIG-MIS-001 Picket on station 4 × 18 nm reference geometry

Persistent maritime presence without expanding crew exposure.

ARMOR turns patrol, reconnaissance, and screening work into a distributed autonomous layer that can hold water, relay awareness, and move as a coordinated surface fleet.

Sensor Spine

Designed for handoff from shore, cutter, or expeditionary deck.

The platform concept emphasizes fast deployment, route discipline, and command oversight across constrained maritime approaches.

Role
Watch, screen, relay
Mode
Single craft or mesh fleet
Focus
Low-signature maritime coverage
Composite maritime operation image with unmanned craft, map overlay, and launch vessel
Vector Overlay

A fleet layer for contested water.

01

Patrol

Hold assigned lanes and surface contacts while keeping operators outside the first line of exposure.

02

Sense

Extend visual and electronic watch over harbor mouths, island chains, and gray-zone approaches.

03

Coordinate

Operate as independent craft or as a synchronized group with route, status, and tasking discipline.

Concept Targets

Four classes, one mission thread.

ARMOR is platform-agnostic at the concept level — the picket logic, the autonomy posture, and the alert calibration are common across classes. The four classes below are the candidate hulls under consideration. Class A is the baseline; B, C, and D are alternates sized for niches the baseline does not cover.

Concept-stage targets — not engineered specifications. Values pending CAD-anchored trade study (DT-05) and vendor confirmation.

ARMOR platform sensor mast — gimballed EO/IR camera, satcom dome, and sensor stack visible in hangar reference build
FIG-PLT-001Voyager-class reference build — concept-stage sensor kit (radar + EO/IR + AIS + classifier). Specific vendor selection pending DT-05.
A

ARMOR-A — Picket

Persistent station-keeper. The baseline.

BASELINE

Wave-piercing monohull, wind- and solar-augmented diesel-electric. Built for weeks-on-station along an approach lane with overlapping radar / EO-IR / classifier coverage. Lowest signature in the family.

Hull
10–12 m monohull
Endurance
≥ 30 days on station
Sensors
Radar + EO/IR + AIS + classifier
Comms
LOS · SATCOM · mesh
Power envelope
~740 W continuous
Picket fit
4 × 18 nm reference

Employment: standard 4-platform picket along a named approach lane. The class the SD-2014 reference scenario was authored against.

B

ARMOR-B — Sprint

High-speed mobile picket. Unpredictable.

ALTERNATE

Lighter hull, higher cruise speed, broader patrol pattern instead of station-keeping. Trades coverage continuity for unpredictability — raises adversary's targeting cost when the picket can't be routed around.

Hull
8–10 m planing/semi-planing
Endurance
~10 days; refuel cycles
Sensors
Radar + EO/IR + classifier
Comms
LOS-primary · SATCOM-backup
Cruise / sprint
~12 kt / ~30 kt
Picket fit
2 × 36 nm rove

Employment: paired roving patrol covering a wider lane than two A-class can hold statically. Sprint capability for repositioning ahead of a forecast adversary window. Without mesh, ARMOR-B enters Denied mode faster than A-class under jamming or range extension — factor into picket architecture.

C

ARMOR-C — Endurance

Forward-deployed long-haul watcher.

ALTERNATE

Larger hull, deeper power and payload margin, longer time at sea without shore refit. Built for forward / partner-theater deployments where the refit cycle of A-class is too short. Carries the optional acoustic / passive-RF kit for the USN variant.

Hull
14–16 m monohull
Endurance
≥ 60 days on station
Sensors
A-class kit + acoustic / passive-RF
Comms
LOS · SATCOM · partner-comms
Payload margin
+30 % over A-class
Picket fit
2–4 × variable spacing

Employment: theater-resident forward watch under partner force command. Carries the V-USN sensor package; optional V-FMS release-controlled classifier baseline.

D

ARMOR-D — Compact

Cutter-deployable. Loss-tolerant.

ALTERNATE

Smallest class. Cutter-launched-and-recovered. Sized to be the loss-tolerant edge of a two-tier picket: paired with an A-class watcher, dispatched to investigate / hold contacts, recovered to the cutter. Designed for graceful loss.

Hull
5–7 m planing
Endurance
~24 hr per launch
Sensors
EO/IR + AIS; relay back to A-class
Comms
LOS to host · mesh
Launch / recovery
Cutter davit-class
Picket fit
1–2 paired with each A-class

Employment: two-tier picket — A-class watches, D-class investigates and holds contacts. Loss tolerance budget per fielded year is materially higher. LOS dependency means cutter displacement triggers Denied mode; recovery nav must be pre-tasked before the host maneuvers.

Voyager-class baseline (per WSA-05 hardware plan). Concept commitment is to Voyager-class, not to Saildrone as sole-source. Platform selection runs in DT-05. Read the productization plan
Mission Layer

The software the hull carries.

Bathymetry, sensor tracks, detections, and ARM-site markers (patrol station designators, distinct from ARMOR platform classes), rendered as a single operational picture. Drive the simulation below or step through the captured moments.

ARMOR platform underway in coastal water with a harbor skyline behind — physical reference for the SD-2014 scenario
FIG-OPS-000Reference platform underway — SD-2014 scenario context.
Mission layer at T+00:00.9 — ARM-2B patrol site reveal
FIG-OPS-001T+00:00.9 ARM-2B patrol site reveal
Mission layer at T+00:03.8 — three patrol sites in picket formation
FIG-OPS-002T+00:03.8 3-site picket
Mission layer at T+00:07.4 — all four patrol sites active
FIG-OPS-003T+00:07.4 Full constellation
Mission layer at T+00:14 — mid-loop calm across all patrol sites
FIG-OPS-004T+00:14.0 Mid-loop
Synthetic mission simulation Open fullscreen ↗
Three autonomous maritime craft crossing open water in formation
FIG-RUN-001Formation patrol across open water.
Side profile of an autonomous maritime defense vessel with Coast Guard markings
FIG-RUN-002Persistent sensor mast and low-profile hull geometry.

Engineering Dossier

The work behind the concept.

ARMOR is run through the warfighter-systems-architect framework — mission analysis, scenario design, software and hardware architecture, qualification plan, and executive briefing. Every claim is gate-checked. Every blocker is named, with a resolution path. The dossier below is the program-engineering record behind the site.

3 mission threads20 qualification events8 named blockersEvidence-tagged throughout

  1. 01

    Mission Analysis Brief

    Watch-officer framing, decision targets, stakeholder map, and the operator-burden hypothesis that gates everything downstream.

    Read brief
  2. 02

    Concept & Scenario Package

    Five concepts considered, three retained. Three scenarios — baseline, mimicry stress, comms-denied stress — with red/blue/white-cell logic.

    Read package
  3. 03

    Simulation & Trade Study Evidence

    11,250 design points swept across picket count, spacing, sensor mix, and false-positive rate. Validation gaps named, not deferred.

    Read evidence
  4. 04

    Mission Software & C2 Architecture

    Three-tier autonomy with calibrated alerts, four-mode comms posture, sensor-fusion contract, and trust-calibration UX rules.

    Read architecture
  5. 05

    Hardware & Productization Plan

    Voyager-class baseline, sensor-mast integration, ~740 W power envelope, three-channel comms, sustainment tail, three-variant matrix.

    Read plan
  6. 06

    Qualification & Deployment Readiness

    Twenty qualification events mapped to MIL-STD, cyber, and authorities reviews. Eight named blockers with resolution paths.

    Read readiness
  7. 07

    Executive & Customer Briefing

    Sixteen-slide deck outline, every claim color-coded — measured, modeled, assumed, unevidenced. No claim beyond the evidence.

    Read briefing
  8. 08

    Reusable Experiment & Decision Infrastructure

    Scenario template, COA library, measure set, decision cards, model patterns. The next concept doesn't restart from zero.

    Read templates

Named Blockers

The eight things that aren’t solved yet.

Per SWARM discipline: unresolved ambiguity stays visible in the release record. None are deferred indefinitely — each carries a named resolution path. Source: WSA-06 §2.

  1. B-01

    COLREGS / authorities for autonomy in U.S. coastal water

    Autonomy posture is not authorities-cleared. ARMOR cannot operate unescorted without a clear letter.

    Resolution: Authorities review + sponsor letter, before first unescorted sea trial.

  2. B-02

    Real sensor model

    No vendor radar / EO-IR detection-probability curves yet. No claim in WSA-03 is sizing-grade until those land.

    Resolution: Vendor data + closed-area test before architect-phase commitment.

  3. B-03

    Operator-burden HITL test rig

    Cognitive-load measure (M-3) cannot be measured without a paper / HITL prototype + watch-officer participants.

    Resolution: Stand up partner relationship (USCG R&D Center target) before architect-phase exit.

  4. B-04

    Sponsor-set cyber framework

    RMF / CMMC level / specific NIST control overlay is sponsor-defined. ATO path cannot finalize without it.

    Resolution: Sponsor conversation.

  5. B-05

    Sponsor-set data retention policy

    Pattern-of-life retention drives storage and privacy posture. Sponsor-defined.

    Resolution: Sponsor conversation.

  6. B-06

    Sponsor-set classification regime for V-USN data

    Classified-handling design depends on a real classification regime, sponsor-defined.

    Resolution: Sponsor conversation.

  7. B-07

    First Voyager-class sea-trial slot

    A real platform on a real day is the gating event for half the qualification matrix.

    Resolution: Vendor / sponsor scheduling.

  8. B-08

    Export-control review for fusion / classifier

    Probable ITAR. V-FMS partner variant cannot ship without an export-control determination.

    Resolution: Counsel / SME review before V-FMS work begins.

Open the full dossier UNCLASSIFIED // FOR PUBLIC RELEASE — capture / pre-RFP positioning, not milestone-A.

Doctrine

How ARMOR is intended to be employed.

ARMOR observes. ARMOR classifies. ARMOR alerts. Humans task and act. The doctrine document captures the authorities posture, the four operating modes, command relationships, rules of alerting, operator workflow, and theater variants — concept-stage and non-binding, written so a watch officer, a sponsor, and a qualification reviewer can read the same page.

Read the doctrine
  1. 02 Authorities & Posture
  2. 03 Concept of Employment
  3. 04 Operating Modes
  4. 05 Command Relationships
  5. 06 Rules of Alerting
  6. 07 Operator Workflow
  7. 08 Risk Tolerance & Override
  8. 09 Theater Variants
  9. 10 Sustainment

Fleet Mesh

Built to scale from a single watch point to a distributed patrol line.

Three low-profile autonomous maritime vessels navigating heavy water
FIG-FLT-001Low-signature craft moving as a coordinated group.
Two Coast Guard marked autonomous vessels operating in rough sea
FIG-FLT-002Service-specific payloads and mission markings.
Autonomous Navy marked maritime vessel cresting over rough water
FIG-FLT-003Heavy-water endurance for forward patrol zones.

Briefing Lock

Deploy the autonomous layer before the threat reaches the harbor.

Request a mission profile, autonomy stack overview, or fleet integration brief for coastal defense planning.

Request Brief