South Korean defence giant Hanwha and U.S. technology firm HavocAI will jointly develop and mass-produce 200-foot autonomous surface vessels (ASVs).

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) pairs Hanwha’s global shipbuilding prowess with HavocAI’s market-leading collaborative autonomy software.

The partnership aims to deliver a new class of unmanned warships that meet the U.S. government’s urgent “Modular Attack Surface Craft” solicitation.

Under the agreement, Hanwha Defense and Hanwha Systems will collaborate with HavocAI on mass production planning, system installation, and technical development.

Per this deal, Hanwha Philly Shipyard, which Hanwha acquired in 2024, will likely be a production hub for these vessels.

This would make Hanwha the only shipbuilder with an operational U.S. shipyard to enter a joint agreement with a dedicated autonomous vessel company.

“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,” said 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.”

This development comes amidst a shift in US defence strategy towards distributed, unmanned maritime operations.

“By forging a partnership between an allied defence company with advanced manufacturing scale in Hanwha with a software-first defence technology company in HavocAI, we will deliver state-of-the-art ASVs at scale for American service members,” said Hanwha Defence 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 partnership builds on a strategic relationship established last October.

In a joint demonstration, HavocAI conducted an autonomous force protection mission off the coast of Hawaii while being commanded remotely from Hanwha Ocean’s Geoje shipyard in South Korea, demonstrating beyond-line-of-sight command and control.

HavocAI has gained rapid traction in the defence sector, recently closing an $85 million funding round and confirming the sale of dozens of vessels to the U.S. Department of War.

The company also reported successful demonstrations of its technology in GPS-denied environments to Ukrainian officials.

The companies plan to scale their partnership to produce thousands of autonomous vessels of various sizes in the coming years.

By integrating Hanwha’s combat management systems with HavocAI’s autonomy stack, the team aims to offer scalable solutions across defence and maritime domains in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and the Middle East.