HERO 120 launcher on Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel (LRUSV)
We talked about the HERO 120 loitering munition before. I noted it might be just what the Coast Guard needs to deal with the potential threat of small, fast, highly maneuverable craft.
While man portable single round launchers are probably all Coast Guard units might need (other than perhaps Bahrain based PATFORSWA Webber class cutters), we now have photos of an eight-cell launcher mounted on a Metal Shark optionally manned 40-foot, Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel (LRUSV).
The Hero 120 is the largest offering in UVision’s “tactical” line of loitering munitions, weighing around 27 and a half pounds, including a 10-pound warhead. It uses an electric motor to drive a propeller at the rear and has a maximum endurance of around 60 minutes.
U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Brian W. Cavanaugh, the commanding general of Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic, Marine Forces Command, Marine Forces Northern Command, and Marines with 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, examine the manual controls to the Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel, Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia, April 27, 2023. A LRUSV is an optionally manned vessel capable of extended travel and transporting loitering munitions that accurately track and destroy targets on sea or land. Metal Shark is designing, building, testing and implementing the LRUSV system under another transaction authority agreement with Marine Corps Systems Command to primarily serve as an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platform.
© Provided by The Drive
While it looks increasingly likely this system will become common in the Navy/Marine Corps inventory, it is perhaps important to remember that this eight-round launcher is not necessary to launch these. Loaded single round launchers are small enough to be man portable and would impose no heavy loads on the platform at launch. Certainly, some training would be required, but they could be stored in a group, station, or ship’s armory and be issued when needed.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
What the USMC should have done was acquire the CB90 for their Amphibious raids and near shore operations
Paging Chuck Hill
Incomplete Design Before Construction Threatens Coast Guard’s Offshore Patrol Cutter Fleet
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/07/10/coast-guard-needs-better-plan-for-offshore-patrol-cutters/
Be careful hitting that link. That site managed to sign me up to their email distribution list without me requesting or approving it.
No telling what other data they are scraping of your system.
Hopefully you can unsubscribe. I did not click on it. Old news about a GAO report. There was a lot of discussion about the davit systems, which if they get it wrong–unlikely–it is relatively easy to fix.
I hope the Corps survive all this stupidity.
I can live with ditching some of the gear like the tanks, but I don’t see where they have yet exploited their ability to be lighter and more maneuverable. I also don’t see where they are leveraging their ability to be a self contained combined arms force although this specific item does seem to be heading n that direction.