Hanwha Defense, HavocAI to develop autonomous surface vessels

January 12, 2026, by Fatima Bahtić

Hanwha Defense USA (HDUSA), Hanwha Systems Co (HSC), and US-based collaborative autonomy company HavocAI have joined forces to develop new 61-meter autonomous surface vessels (ASVs).

Under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the companies will jointly develop these ASVs to include mass production planning, installation, proposal development, and technical domains.

Production will be pursuant to the US Government’s Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops solicitation program.

Hanwha is currently the only shipbuilder with an operational shipyard in the United States to enter into a joint agreement with an autonomous vessel company. Hanwha Philly Shipyard is under consideration to produce the 61-meter autonomous ASV.

HavocAI recently closed a $85 million funding round, publicly confirmed the sale of dozens of vessels to the US Department of War, and successfully demonstrated its collaborative autonomy technology in GPS-denied environments to Ukrainian officials.

“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,” said Hanwha Defense USA CEO Michael Coulter.

“This agreement will not only deliver for the American warfighter but will create much-needed competition for the Department of War acquisition process.”

“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,” commented Paul Lwin, Co-founder and CEO of HavocAI.

“Partnerships like this – pairing a leading-edge technology with an established global infrastructure – are exactly how we achieve that goal.”

Last October, Hanwha and Havoc AI announced a strategic relationship following a joint technology demonstration from Hanwha Ocean’s Geoje shipyard in Korea, where Havoc AI conducted an autonomous force protection mission off the coast of Hawaii, with beyond-line-of-sight command and control from Geoje.

Meanwhile, last year, HavocAI entered into a strategic collaboration with Lockheed Martin Ventures, the venture capital arm of Lockheed Martin Corporation, to accelerate the development and scaling of medium unmanned surface vehicles (mUSVs).