DARPA confirms ownership of mysterious vessel after photos emerge on Reddit

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been forced to acknowledge that a mysterious ship spotted by a Washington state Redditor is from one of their special programs, according to a report.

Images of the odd-looking, 180-foot ship escorted by a tugboat through the Saratoga Passage in Puget Sound emerged on Reddit earlier this week with users on the “r/Navy” subreddit unable to identify the craft photographed just a few miles from a Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island.

DARPA confirmed to outlet The War Zone that the boat was a new “uncrewed surface vessel” (USV) designed to operate for extended sea voyages without any humans onboard.

The ship named “USX-1 Defiant” is the product of the secretive agency’s No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) program and may soon be an operational part of the Navy’s fleet, the outlet reported.

The 240-metric ton vessel, developed by Serco Inc., will soon undergo extensive in-water testing before it’s expected to set sail on a multi-month, crewless test journey at sea this spring, according to the publication.

DARPA has billed Defiant as a low-cost, low-maintenance, and versatile ship that will be able to successfully navigate “missile-laden drone boats in the future,” The War Zone reported. The innovative modular design allows the medium-sized vessel to house angled missile launch systems and act as a transport, DARPA told the outlet.

The company Serco was awarded a $68.5 million contract from DARPA for the NOMARS program back in 2022.

At the time, the agency announced that the Defiant will feature hybrid power generation, podded propulsion, and high-capacity batteries that increase its resilience on extended voyages. 

DARPA said its NOMARS vessels are built according to the philosophy of “graceful degradation,” which accounts for the possibility of individual equipment failing at sea by having enough redundancy in the ship’s systems to maintain a 15-knot pace for an entire year’s journey.

Neither DARPA nor Serco responded to the Post’s request for comment.

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