DCMA inspects, accepts 300 Navy ASVs in first year of production

AUSTIN, Texas – Defense Contract Management Agency South’s Red River contracting office marked the 300th successful inspection and acceptance of the Navy’s Corsair autonomous surface vessel here in June.

The Red River office supports 626 defense contractors with a contract value of more than $19 billion spread throughout Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and North Texas.

DCMA’s support for the Navy ASV program is a part of the War Department’s prioritization of rapid prototype to production of ASVs like the 24-foot Corsair, using other transaction authorities. These OTAs are the statutory authorities granted by Congress to federal agencies such as the Department of War to bypass traditional Federal Acquisition Regulation procurement rules. From these authorities buying commands enter into other transaction agreements, commonly referred to as ‘other transactions or OTs. These OTs are the actual legal agreements signed between the buying commands and a defense contractor to carry out a specific prototype, research or production project.

“While OTAs may not require the same level of oversight as FAR-based contracts when they are used for programs with solid prototypes, scalable manufacturing processes, and DCMA oversight, they can allow non-traditional defense contractors to rapidly deliver effective combat systems to the warfighter,” said Army Lt. Col. David Volz, commander of DCMA South Red River. “Such was the case at the Saronic Technologies facility in Austin.”

Volz said the improvements in production capacity paid off in February of this year when Navy customers notified DCMA of a need to go faster.

“At the end of February, personnel with the Navy’s Program Acquisition Executive for Robotic Autonomous Systems and the Navy requested surge support from DCMA in order to meet immediate and urgent operational requirements,” said Volz. “Those ‘urgent operational requirements’ later came to be known as Operation Epic Fury.”

The teaming to increase production at the facility garnered praise from PAE-RAS and Navy customers, but Volz said perhaps the clearest measure of success occurred when U.S. Central Command used an ASV to rescue two downed Army pilots in the Strait Hormuz off the coast of Oman June 8.

It was the first time ASVs were used in such an operation. In a brief press release about the incident, CENTCOM said, “the rescue efforts were led by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the 82nd Airborne Division, with support from U.S. Air Force and Navy units including U.S. 5th Fleet’s Task Force 59.”

According to the 5th Fleet, TF 59 integrates unmanned systems and artificial intelligence with maritime operations in the 5th Fleet area of operations.

The specific task group that operates the Corsairs for the 5th Fleet is Task Group 59.1, which is responsible for the operational deployment of unmanned systems teamed with manned operators to bolster maritime security. “Our rapid surge support in fulfilling our mission directly enabled global combat operations and served as a prime example of DCMA's role as a combat support agency,” said Volz.

In mid July, CENTCOM used Corsairs again, but in that operation three Corsairs were sent in a one-way attack configuration to successfully destroy Iranian submarine and ship maintenance facilities.

Volz credits his team’s expertise and early support as a key component of the operational successes, and as the combat role for autonomous surface vessels expands in the Middle East, he believes his team's work will play a key support role.

The production facility launched in June 2025 and the defense contractor had never mass produced ASVs. Throughout the course of that first year the Austin-based quality team managed their normal workload supporting other contracts in North Texas and helped the ASV production facility develop manufacturing and surveillance processes that sped up delivery.

“In the beginning, my quality assurance team at the Austin facility inspected one or two vessels a week,” said William Harris, quality assurance supervisor with DCMA South Red River.

With a $441 million agreement with Naval Sea Systems Command, the initial deliveries were not going to cut it, he said. Harris, a 20-year Air Force veteran with decades of experience in aviation maintenance and quality assurance, supervises teams, which travel to multiple Texas-based defense contractors between Waco, Abilene, and Austin, the site of the ASV production facility.

“Today we’re looking at many times more ASVs than that first month, and we’re capable of expanding our inspection and acceptance schedules even further,” he said.

The person Harris entrusts with overseeing the Corsair production facility is Charlie Huffman, his quality assurance team lead. Before coming to DCMA, Huffman, served on active duty as a small and large vessel engine mechanic in the Coast Guard and later transitioned to the Air Force Reserve where he became an aircraft mechanic. His diverse professional background, coupled with his DCMA experience, make him uniquely qualified to lead the quality assurance team.

Huffman said by maintaining a steady presence and close contact with stakeholders at the facility in those early days, it was easier to identify some of the potential impacts on scheduled deliveries.

“The defense contractor was busy hiring staff and still making changes to their designs, which created delays in acceptance of vessels,” said Huffman. “Those first couple of months we were definitely pulling our hair out. We had to get involved and get to work on the factory floor and do our inspections and get some confidence in what they were doing to ensure that the Navy was getting what they wanted.”

The interventions were necessary, but they are also a slight departure from DCMA’s focus on process evaluation, which is more suited for a traditional defense contractor with decades of mass production experience. After NAVSEA’s urgent operational request for surge support, Huffman said the production facility had vastly improved.

Today, the local DCMA team and the production facility are ready to respond to future surge support requests. With a proven track record, robust stakeholder communication, and a non-traditional defense contractor expanding production operations, Huffman said the collaboration is an example of how DCMA strengthens and sustains America’s competitive edge in military drone technology.

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