HII marks ROMULUS 151 drone-ship progress in Louisiana for US Navy
A hull-plaque ceremony in New Iberia signals that HII's unmanned vessel order is moving from testing to production, a story investors and India's defence-minded readers may want to track.
US shipbuilder HII (NYSE: HII) held a ceremony in New Iberia, Louisiana, on Tuesday to mark production progress on its ROMULUS unmanned surface vessels, part of the US Navy's medium unmanned surface vessel (MUSV) program. A hull plaque was installed on the ROMULUS 151 vessel.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, Vice Adm. Michael Wosje, HII CEO Chris Kastner and Breaux Brothers Enterprises President Brannon Breaux attended. According to the company's statement, the Navy has awarded HII a contract for 10 ROMULUS 151 vessels.
For market watchers, the detail worth noting is the supply chain. Construction draws on Gulf Coast partners including Breaux Brothers Enterprises, Halimar Shipyard and Bayou Metal Supply & Manufacturing. HII says it began lining up partnerships, production capacity and infrastructure in 2025, a sign that autonomous ships are being treated as a manufacturing business rather than a lab experiment.
ROMULUS is billed as a modular, AI-enabled family of vessels built on HII's Odyssey Advanced Autonomy Solutions. The intended roles include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, mine countermeasures, strike operations, counter-drone work, and launching and recovering underwater and aerial unmanned vehicles.
The evaluation phase, completed with Applied Intuition, Greenroom Robotics and Rodi Marine, included 13 days of Navy-monitored testing in the Gulf of America. In that time the autonomy system ran a 420-nautical-mile mission lasting 28 hours. The vessel itself was developed with Beier Integrated Systems and Incat Crowther.
Why it matters here: India is also investing in indigenous defence manufacturing and maritime security, and global moves toward uncrewed naval platforms shape that conversation and the wider defence-tech investment mood. HII employs 45,000 people across three divisions and is headquartered in Virginia.
Source: Investing.com