Blue Water Autonomy partners up to scale next-gen shipbuilding

IBlue Water Autonomy Liberty Class is based on a Damen Stan Patrol design [Image: Damen]Damen

Blue Water Autonomy, the Boston-based tech company whose first 190-foot Liberty Class autonomous ship is under construction at Conrad Shipyards, has entered a number of strategic partnerships to scale the production of its next-generation, autonomous vessels,

The news comes as the Navy and broader defense ecosystem accelerate toward producible, autonomous ships, in support of the Navy’s Medium Unmanned Surface Vessels program, the fleet’s largest unmanned initiative with more than $6 billion of funding.

“Traditional shipbuilding doesn’t scale, and pure software approaches don’t deliver hardware,” said Rylan Hamilton, CEO of Blue Water Autonomy. “We’re doing both. Integrating proven marine systems with AI-driven manufacturing and operations to fundamentally rethink how ships are built. By distributing and parallelizing work across proven partners, we’re creating a production system that can move at the pace required for a modern maritime industrial base.”

At the core of Blue Water’s model is a network of best-in-class partnerships:

Somerset, Mass,-based Tulip Interface Inc. supports Blue Waster’s AI-native manufacturing execution system, enabling real-time orchestration of production on the factory floor.

Caterpillar Defense provides proven, field tested, marine diesel engines that power Blue Water’s vessels.

Howell, Mich,-based Precise Power Systems designs and manufacturers fully integrated containerized engine modules designed to operate autonomously for extended durations without human intervention.

Austin, Texas-based AI-enabled manufacturing systems specialist Valstad develops advanced manufacturing automation systems, including modular structural panel kits and robotic fabrication cells to power distributed ship production.

“Shipbuilding has always required extraordinary coordination, and we’re giving that coordination a software backbone,” said Erik Mirandette, chief business officer at Tulip. “Tulip connects every step on the factory floor with real-time data and AI-native tools, so Blue Water can orchestrate production at scale, catch issues earlier, and build with the speed and reliability that modern maritime demands.”

Together, says Blue Water, these partners enable it to “digitize and orchestrate shipbuilding from the ground up, transforming traditionally manual, fragmented processes into a scalable, software-defined production system.The result: speed, flexibility, and resilience.”

The announcement builds on Blue Water’s broader strategy to modernize maritime manufacturing by pairing established industrial capabilities with next-generation software infrastructure, enabling faster iteration, improved reliability, and increased production capacity across a network of partners.

Shipbuilding and testing of Blue Water’s vessels are already underway, with the company currently executing an accelerated testing program and targeting a live autonomy demonstration later this summer.