Fastest Autonomous International Run Ever

Maritime Tactical Systems, Inc. (MARTAC), an innovator in Maritime Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs), launched its Devil Ray T38 USV from Palm Beach, Florida Inlet with the goal of performing a fully autonomous run across the Florida Straits to West Bank, Bahamas in under one hour.

At 9:06 am the Devil Ray T38 acquired its first alignment waypoint outside of the Palm Beach Inlet, Florida and began its speed run across the straits. At 10:06 am, the Devil Ray T38 arrived at the Bahamas waypoint for a total run time of 57 minutes. During the transit, the Devil Ray T38 achieved a top speed of 71.5 kts (82 mph or 132 kmh) which included a four-minute stop to avoid shipping traffic in the straits.

The return trip from West End, Bahamas to Palm Beach Inlet, Florida followed a similar track with a total transit time of 59 minutes including a six-minute stop to avoid fishing boat traffic. During each round trip run, the Devil Ray T38 waypoint mission averaged 61 miles (98 km) while maintaining an average cruise speed of 61 kts (70 mph or 113 kmh). During these tracks, the Devil Ray T38 achieved an average tracking accuracy of +/- 1.3 degrees and a steady state cross track error of +/-3 m.

Bruce Hanson, MARTAC’s CEO said “We are excited that our Expeditionary Class Devil Ray T38 is the first USV to autonomously perform this high-speed international run. This is a culmination of 10 years of product development and thousands of hours testing and running our patented X- and Expeditionary Class USV systems for reliability and accuracy. This is the first run in a series that will continue to vet and refine our technology to address the needs of our military, scientific and commercial customers’ missions and applications. MARTAC’s USV classes simply operate Beyond Human Capability.”

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Read more in the article below about the innovative T38 Devil Ray and demonstration at the US Navy Inaugural Unmanned Systems Integrated Battle Problem 2

“The T38 Devil Ray is the best unmanned surface vehicle candidate to meet the Navy’s needs today. Unlike many USVs that are in various stages of development, the Devil Ray is certified as Technical Readiness Level Nine (TRL 9), meaning it is ready for deployment now. Further, integrating Devil Ray into the Fleet requires no special accommodation to field today, since it matches the size of the eleven-meter RHIB currently carried by many U.S. Navy ships. The Navy will be well served to put Devil Ray into the hands of our Sailors in order to meet urgent operational needs.”

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Unmanned Surface Vessel fastest ever international run

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