Ghostworks Marine, a company in Beechwood (southwest of Grand Rapids) specializing in innovative hull designs and materials, has developed a modular platform — the Medusa (M90T) — capable of delivering a rapidly deployable anti-submarine warfare (ASW) technology.
The craft will carry next-generation sonar from Ultra Maritime in Massachusetts.
The 90-foot platform with its M-Hull design will carry Ultra Maritime’s Mission Pod and towed array. The 20-foot containerized Mission Pod is specifically designed for smaller minimally crewed and uncrewed vessels to deliver scalable undersea domain awareness at pace.
“Our goal is to develop a rapidly deployable, turnkey, ASW capability that allows users to implement a comprehensive ASW strategy efficiently,” says Patrick Coughlin, executive vice president of business development at Ghostworks. “The primary operational unit will be the Ghostworks Marine Medusa open stern variant (M90T), equipped with Ultra Maritime’s containerized ASW package.
The Mission Pod contains a complete ASW system including processing and is fully automated for remote operations. The hull design of the vessel allows sufficient payload capacity while maintaining high speed for the rapid deployment of ASW missions. The platform offers navies an innovative and flexible way to respond quickly to potential underwater threats.
“These vessels will integrate data from Ultra Maritime’s towed array, sonobuoy, and other ISR/ASW sources within their fire control systems to track and potentially engage submerged targets,” Coughlin adds. “Expanding on that capability, additional Medusa vessels can deploy Ghostworks’ USVs (unmanned surface vessels), which can be fit out with tethered octocopters or balloons that serve as receivers for Ultra Maritime sonobuoy data.”
Coughlin says the USVs will remain on station for extended periods, providing persistent coverage. The M90 vessels manage all assets, allowing them to refuel and reload the USVs at sea, facilitating the task force’s pursuit of submerged threats over long distances.
The system will deploy Ultra Maritime’s next generation independently developed sonobuoys. These sonobuoys have extended operational life and improved acoustic output to help navies deliver assurance of safe passage to both commercial and military vessels alike. The USVs will also carry Ultra Maritime’s receivers and processing equipment.
“The Ultra Maritime Mission Pod is designed for quick deployment on and off surface vessels. Ghostworks’ Medusa (M90T) offers ready integration and can carry the Mission Pod alongside a family of vessels and drones, adding layers of detection and data collection capabilities,” says Mark Kenny, senior vice president of business development at Ultra Maritime. “This enables us to provide our customers with a complete turnkey solution at a fraction of the cost of larger capital ASW ships.”
To learn more, visit ghostworksmarine.com and umaritime.com.
 specializing in innovative hull designs and materials, has developed a modular platform — the Medusa (M90T) — capable of delivering a rapidly deployable anti-submarine warfare (ASW) technology.){kind=link}