The Navy has previously said the LDUSVs might fill the role of "arsenal ships" packed with stand-off missiles to provide additional firepower for a surface task force. Rear Admiral Crites said that a vertical launch system capability would be one requirement for the LDUSV.

Crites comment that these ships will also be "sensors" indicates that they could also pack capable and diverse sensors suites, potentially including those not necessary found on manned ships. Doing so would offer commanders increased situational awareness across a broad front.

The Navy over-arching unmanned surface vessel plan has three tiers – small, medium, and large – and the service has been very clear in the past that it expected the medium-sized types to fill the requirement for unmanned scouts operating ahead of larger surface action groups. All of these unmanned vessels will also be networked together with each other, as well as with manned vessels and other friendly forces. The Navy also expects them to be able to operate at least semi-autonomously.

With this in mind, there could easily be multiple configurations of the designs in each tier. Some LDUSVs could potentially act as sensor nodes, providing targeting data for others optimized to carry the maximum number of missiles, with the drone ships acting an independent task group, as well.

These are all questions the Navy will be looking to answer in the coming years. The service is asking for the initial $400 million in funding for the LDUSV program, at least, as part of its research and development budget, but it hopes to eventually transition the effort to an actual program of record before the 2024 Fiscal Year.

This in many ways reflects the Navy's general experience with the development of the smaller Sea Hunter unmanned surface vessel. That program originally began as a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) effort, but transitioned to the responsibility of the Office of Naval Research in 2018. The service is now using it as a stepping stone toward buying its fleet of Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vessels (MDUSV) and the lessons learned from operating it will surely also inform the LDUSV effort.