Textron Adds BRAWLR Air Defense Module to CUSV Naval Drone
Textron has fitted its CUSV naval drone with Sierra Nevada’s BRAWLR air-defense module. Images of the configuration were published on X by official accounts of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and the U.S. 4th Fleet. The armed unmanned surface vessel was shown during a visit by senior U.S. military officials to Fleet Experimentation 2026, an annual event used to display and assess new maritime technologies.
The demonstration points to a broader U.S. Navy push to place more autonomous systems into contested maritime missions. Organizers describe FLEX as a key part of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command’s plan to use advanced robotic and autonomous platforms to patrol large sea areas with fewer conventional naval assets. Mounting BRAWLR on the CUSV would extend the vehicle’s role beyond mine countermeasures, surveillance and support tasks, giving it a mobile air-defense function against drones and cruise missiles.
BRAWLR, developed by Sierra Nevada, was first publicly introduced in September 2025. The universal combat module can carry up to four missile types at the same time and is designed to intercept one-way attack drones and cruise missiles. It can be equipped with APKWS, AIM-120, IRIS-T and AIM-9 missiles. For targeting and integration, the system uses a FLIR thermal-imaging camera, MANET connectivity, LAU-7 aviation pylons and LAU-68 or LAU-131 launch containers. Sierra Nevada has said the system has intercepted more than 400 aerial threats since deployment in 2023, though it has not disclosed where it was used.
The Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle is already an established U.S. Navy platform. Textron received a $33.8 million contract in October 2014 to supply CUSVs for the Unmanned Influence Sweep System program, covering design, development, qualification and joint command-and-control software during a 30-month engineering and production phase. In its baseline configuration, the CUSV is about 11.7 meters long and 3.5 meters wide, with a gross weight of about 11,340 kg, a maximum speed above 30 knots, endurance of up to 72 hours and a range of more than 926 km at 10 knots. It can carry about 2,250 kg of payload, offers about 12.1 square meters of deck payload area and supports 45 kg of surveillance equipment; full operations are possible in 1.25-meter waves, with limited operations in seas up to 2.5 meters. The addition of BRAWLR could turn CUSV into a distributed air-defense node at sea, expanding naval coverage while reducing reliance on crewed warships in high-risk areas.