The U.S. Marine Corps will receive two more vessels from The Whiskey Project Group this summer after the Australian company delivered the first two boats in early 2024.
Pat O’Mara, assessment manager of the USMC’s Multi-Mission Reconnaissance Craft program, said at a defense conference in Washington on Thursday that the additional units would enable the service to conduct more tests and trials to help the Marines familiarize themselves with the new platform.
The current combatant craft features infrared imagers, navigation radar and a tethered drone, C4ISRNET reported.
It is also engineered to transport people and sensors, meeting USMC’s requirements for rapid troop deployment and enhanced situational awareness and targeting.
“The Marine Corps wants to push those capabilities to the tactical edge to support the warfighter,” O’Mara said.
In an earlier statement confirming the boat’s delivery, TWPG said the MMRC packs a host of mission systems supplied by around 50 U.S. and Australian original equipment manufacturers, including sensors, modular mission sets and intelligence surveillance reconnaissance equipment.
“TWPG’s mission was to redefine tactical watercraft and create a new generation of safer, completely networked, combat-ready fit-for-purpose platforms, based on our own naval special operations experience,” TWPG CEO and co-founder Darren Schuback said.