On 17APR2021, the Maritime Tactical Systems‘ ManTAS (Man-Portable Tactical Autonomous Systems) T38 Devil Ray robot boat was demonstrated just prior to the U.S. Navy’s (USN) UxS IBP 21, in San Diego, California.

U.S. Navy photo by Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael Jones, 17APR2021.

According to an article published in March 2021, the T38 (38 feet long) Devil Ray is a combat resupply boat able to carry up to 4-thousand-5-hundred pounds in a single load.  It is the latest in a line of unsatisfactory attempts to create a compact robot logistics system.

USN photo by Petty Officer Third Class Alexander P. Perlman.

Video, by Petty Officer 3rd Class Casey Trietsch, of the Devil Ray tooling around San Diego:

The Devil Ray looks like a racing boat because it is a racing boat.  According to BlueZone Group (Maritime Tactical Systems’s dealer in Australia and New Zealand) “The MANTAS USV vessel is a catamaran hull design based on a powerboat racing vessel that set world speed records.” 

USN photo by Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael Jones, 17APR2021.

UxS IBP 21 stands for Unmanned Systems (not sure why there is an ‘x’ in the acronym) Integrated Battle Problem 2021.  UxS IBP 21 is the first ‘classified’ USN wargame involving robot vehicles and weapons competing against people operated systems, apparently spurred by doubts coming from the U.S. Congress: “With the recent acquisition failures on the last several ship classes, those of us on this committee are skeptical of the Navy’s ability to shepherd this new technology into employable assets that contribute to the lethality of those forces.”-Representative Elaine Luria of Virginia

IBP 21 took place from April 19th to the 26th.

Robot Wars 2020:  USN’S NEW ROBOT GUN BOAT, OR CUSV