Massachusetts-based unmanned vessel manufacturer Blue Water Autonomy has entered into an agreement with Conrad Shipyard of Louisiana on the construction of new autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs).
The news comes just weeks after Blue Water announced its series A funding, bringing the company to US$61 million raised to date with the goal of building and deploying its first long-range, full-sized ASV next year.
Rylan Hamilton, Co-Founder and CEO of Blue Water Autonomy, said that the company is, "designing for deployment, not just demonstration," and that the partnership with Conrad, "puts [Blue Water] in a position to deliver ships quickly, while demonstrating the expertise and scale of existing US shipbuilding capacity."
Under the agreement, Conrad will assemble Blue Water's first class of autonomous ships. Conrad plans to use multiple facilities, allowing for parallel builds and scalable throughput.
Blue Water had earlier said that it is designing and building what it described as "highly producible" unmanned ships for the US Navy.