HII has completed the Production-Ready, Inexpensive, Maritime Expeditionary, or PRIME, prototype project for its Watcher small unmanned surface vessel , or sUSV, with the Defense Innovation Unit, or DIU, recognizing the platform’s readiness for a potential transition to production. The company said Tuesday DIU officially acknowledged the completion of the PRIME prototype effort, building on HII’s delivery and at-sea evaluation of two Watcher sUSVs in December under a DIU contract to build smaller-form-factor unmanned surface craft for the U.S. Marine Corps. HII partnered with MetalCraft Marine to build the Watcher sUSV, which is based on HII’s ROMULUS-25 platform and run by the company’s Odyssey Autonomous Control System.