August 11, 2026 HII/MetalCraft Marine Autonomous ROMULUS USV with HII Autonomy Successfully Passed a Critical DoW Test MCLEAN, Va., August 11, 2026 – HII (NYSE: HII) announced that the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has officially recognized the successful completion of the company’s Production-Ready, Inexpensive, Maritime Expeditionary (PRIME) prototype project, featuring the Watcher small Unmanned Surface Vessel (sUSV), which is based on HII’s ROMULUS-25 Unmanned Surface Vessel and powered by HII’s Odyssey Autonomous Control System (ACS). The DIU recognition follows HII’s delivery and successful sea testing of two autonomous Watcher ROMULUS-25 vessels in December 2025 under a DIU contract to develop smaller-form-factor autonomous surface vessels for the U.S. Marine Corps. Developed in partnership with MetalCraft Marine, the Watcher sUSV successfully met the program’s technical objectives and is now positioned for a potential transition to production. HII’s Odyssey ACS modular open systems architecture (MOSA) enables intelligent navigation, mission planning, collaborative behaviors, and multi-domain autonomous operations while allowing operators to rapidly integrate autonomy across multiple vehicle types and increasingly complex missions in contested environments. Its service-based design enables seamless integration with other mission-enabling technologies, enhancing mission effectiveness through AI-enabled contact recognition, identification, and edge-based decision-making. In a memorandum to HII, DIU stated: "The HII Watcher sUSV has successfully demonstrated its appropriateness to address the Department of the Navy’s operational need for sUSV interceptors, capable of autonomously transiting hundreds of miles through contested waterspace, loitering in an assigned operating area while monitoring for maritime surface threats, and then sprinting to interdict a noncooperative, maneuvering vessel." The memorandum further concluded that HII achieved the prototype’s key technical goals and success metrics, supporting a potential transition to production under Other Transaction Authority (OTA) prototype agreements. "This milestone is another example of HII’s strategy to rapidly transition innovative technologies from concept to operational capability," said Duane