HII unveils distributed maritime operations framework to support U.S. Navy ‘hedge strategy’

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — At the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Expo 2026, HII will showcase a next-generation framework for joint, mission-enabled maritime operations that integrates naval warships, modular and containerized capabilities, autonomous unmanned systems, and open-architecture mission technologies aligned to the U.S. Navy chief of naval operations’ Hedge Strategy Fighting Instructions.

The approach spans maritime, air, space, cyber and land domains, emphasizing flexible, interoperable assets designed to let commanders generate intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities and combat power from anywhere in the battlespace. The company describes it as a force-multiplying system-of-systems built to plug directly into the joint force and deliver tailored distributed maritime effects at scale.

“This is about connecting platforms and enabling the mission,” said Eric Chewning, executive vice president of maritime systems and corporate strategy at HII. “Through open architecture, modular design, and rapid deployment models, we enable seamless integration of advanced technologies across platforms. By investing in autonomy and AI, we ensure that the U.S. Navy, Joint Force, and allied navies can adapt in real time to emerging threats using scalable, interoperable solutions.”

The industrial strategy underscores a shift from concentrated force to distributed, integrated operations across domains, featuring autonomy and manned-unmanned teaming. It moves away from platform-centric operations toward a networked model in which sensing, decision-making and effects are decoupled from single systems or linear kill chains.

Combining core fleet ships, autonomous systems and mission-enabling technologies, the framework is intended to help commanders tailor forces to operationalize the Hedge Strategy and warfighting concepts through scalable formations of manned-unmanned platforms. It is also designed to enable data collected in one domain to produce effects in another, supporting joint and coalition operations and allowing geographically dispersed forces to deliver outcomes at greater speed, scale and tempo.

At the center of the operational architecture is the HII-developed and government-owned Minotaur Mission Management System, an open-architecture command-and-control platform that fuses maritime, air, space and undersea sensor data into a unified operational picture and enables contributions to joint tracking, targeting and fires. Built on open architecture, Minotaur is intended to ensure that platforms like ROMULUS and future systems can integrate into joint and coalition operations without creating dependencies on any single platform, with the goal of faster decisions, tighter integration and effects delivered across the battlespace with speed and precision.

Autonomous operations are coordinated through HII’s Odyssey Autonomous Control System, which applies autonomy algorithms and artificial intelligence for navigation, coordinated behaviors and distributed sensing missions. Integrated with Minotaur, Odyssey enables operators to supervise and manage multiple unmanned platforms simultaneously, centralizes command and control of distributed unmanned assets, increases data collection and operational reach, and shortens the sensor-to-shooter timeline to improve survivability and lethality in contested environments.

HII emphasizes containerized, mission-ready payloads that can be rapidly deployed across a range of manned and unmanned maritime platforms, supporting reduced integration timelines and costs, rapid force reconfiguration, and distributed maritime and joint operations without platform dependency.

The concept is positioned to support the Navy’s evolving Hedge Strategy by providing commanders with more flexible, scalable options for presence and combat power. While aircraft carrier strike groups remain the centerpiece of U.S. naval power projection, distributed, unmanned-enabled forces are described as expanding their reach, extending awareness and creating additional dilemmas for adversaries.

By prioritizing open architecture and interoperability, commercial acquisition models, rapid integration and deployment cycles, and continuous iteration at the operational edge, HII is presenting a shift toward speed, adaptability and mission-focused innovation in maritime power.