WASHINGTON — Maritime tech startup Blue Water Autonomy and maritime drone manufacturer Saildrone have filed lawsuits against the US Navy, after the service rejected their proposals submitted through the new Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) marketplace that launched in March.
One of the lawsuits goes so far as to ask that the courts effectively freeze the service from moving forward with plans to complete testing and award further contracts for the MUSV program, which is a key unmanned push by the Navy.
According to an unsealed complaint, both companies claim that their proposals did satisfy Navy requirements for the marketplace. The firms allege in the complaint that the Navy itself did not adhere to guidance outlined in the service’s request for proposals (RFP) issued in March, and eliminated the firms from the competition based on “conclusions” that don’t align with the RFP.
Neither Saildrone’s Spectre MUSV and Blue Water Autonomy’s Liberty MUSV design was selected to move forward to the at-sea prototype testing phase that is expected to wrap up in October.
The lawsuits come after the Navy canceled in March its Modular Attack Surface Craft (MASC) program that sought to design and develop USVs, and instead, announced the MUSV marketplace would take its place.
