Nereid
The missing half of the kill web. Nereid is a low-profile USV that carries Lance and Shade, paired with an extra-large UUV that maps, mines, and listens. Built to a shipping-container standard so the industrial base is the civilian one.
Nereid
XSM-26H
Meridian design bureau
Conceptual · not a program of record
- Unit cost
- $3.20M
- Combat radius
- 1,800 nm
- Endurance
- 240 h
- Speed
- 28 kt
- Ceiling
- 0 ft
- Payload
- 350 kg
- FY26 buy
- 40
- Rate / year
- 80
Launch / recover
Launch. Well deck / pier / from a commercial-standard 40-ft launch cradle
Recover. Pier, well deck, or scuttle
C2. Fleet mesh via Cistern/Harrier; acoustic when dived; burst sat when surfaced
Why it is better
- The USV is a Lance/Shade magazine that happens to float — air-sea kill web, not a science project
- Commercial 40-ft cradle so any port is a squadron
- Acoustic-relative nav so a jammed sky does not blind the undersea half
- Optionally attritable: a $3.2M boat is cheaper than a $2B destroyer in a minefield
Nav (GNSS optional)
- inertial + bottom contour
- celestial (surface)
- acoustic relative
- GNSS-optional
Sense
- mast EO/IR
- towed array (UUV)
- AIS/ESM
- MAD
Effect
- Lance-L magazine (USV)
- mine / counter-mine (UUV)
- gateway buoy
Family
| Variant | Unit | Range | Endurance | FY26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Nereid-S Surface Low-profile USV, 12-cell Lance/Shade magazine, 28 kt dash | $3.20M | 3300 km | 14400 min | 40 |
Nereid-U Undersea Extra-large UUV, mine/recon, 15-day dived | $6.50M | 2200 km | 21600 min | 24 |
Against the public program
Replicator USVs / Dive-LD / Ghost Shark analogs
Public. Replicator selected uncrewed surface vehicles and Dive-LD UUV; details sparse
Gap. Maritime mass is still a prototype pile, not a magazine the fleet owns
Meridian. Surface hunter with a Lance magazine + extra-large UUV, commercial-standard launch