Serco Inc., Herndon, Va., a provider of professional, technology, engineering, and management services, has christened the USX-1 Defiant, a demonstrator vessel for DARPA’s No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) program. The ceremony took place on Monday, August 11, at Everett Ship Repair, Everett, Wash., signaling a pivotal moment in Serco’s future of naval architecture and autonomous operations, according to a statement announcing the christening.
The 240-metric-ton unmanned surface vessel (USV) was built at Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, Freeland, Wash., and completed construction in February 2025.
The vessel is designed to operate autonomously for extended periods without an onboard crew, which keeps crewmembers out of harms way and is cheaper to operate when the Navy doesn't have to pay sailors to operate it.
"We christened a vessel that embodies a new spirit of innovation," Tom Watson, CEO of Serco, said in the statement. "The Defiant re-imagines naval architecture, freeing us from the constraints of human habitation to create a ship capable of operating autonomously at sea. This aligns with the nation’s mission of delivering a distributed, highly capable USV fleet that can operate in contested waters and high-threat environments, extending the reach of our Navy — without putting our sailors at risk.”
The USX-1 Defiant represents a radical departure from traditional ship design, conceived from the keel up with no provision or expectation for human crew. This “clean-sheet” approach aims to deliver advantages in size, cost, at-sea reliability, hydrodynamic efficiency, and survivability, ultimately enabling a new class of highly capable and cost-effective unmanned surface vessels (USVs).
Following its christening, the USX-1 Defiant began an at-sea demonstration of its reliability and endurance. The program aims to validate the core NOMARS concept, paving the way for significant advancements in unmanned naval capabilities.
