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Hanwha Defense USA has entered into a joint agreement with Hanwha Systems Co and HavocAI to develop 200-foot Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASV).
The partnership combines Hanwha’s global shipbuilding and manufacturing scale with HavocAI’s collaborative autonomy technology.
This agreement is said to make Hanwha the only shipbuilder with an operational shipyard in the United States that is currently partnered with an autonomous vessels company. The Hanwha Philly Shipyard is being considered as the production site for the 200-foot craft.
HavocAI recently secured $85 million in funding and confirmed the sale of dozens of vessels to the U.S. Department of War. The company also recently demonstrated its autonomy technology in GPS-denied environments for Ukrainian officials.
The development program is aligned with the U.S. Government’s Modular Attack Surface Craft solicitation. Under the Memorandum of Understanding, the entities will collaborate on technical domains, installation, proposal development, and mass production planning.
Michael Coulter, CEO of Hanwha Defense USA, commented, “By forging a partnership between an allied defense company with advanced manufacturing scale in Hanwha with a software-first defense technology company in HavocAI, we will deliver state-of-the art ASVs at scale for American service members. This agreement will not only deliver for the American warfighter but will create much-needed competition for the Department of War acquisition process.”
Paul Lwin, Co-founder and CEO of HavocAI, added, “The Department of War has sent a clear demand signal to the shipbuilding industry: we need more boats, faster, with more capabilities, for less money. Partnerships like this – pairing a leading-edge technology with an established global infrastructure – are exactly how we achieve that goal.”
The formalization of this partnership follows a strategic relationship established last October. During a joint technology demonstration, HavocAI conducted an autonomous force protection mission off the coast of Hawaii using Beyond-Line-of-Sight (BLOS) command and control operated from Hanwha Ocean’s Geoje shipyard in Korea.
