{"id":7518,"date":"2026-05-07T13:00:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/7518\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T13:00:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:00:58","slug":"anduril-hyundai-heavy-industries-set-sights-on-us-navys-unmanned-surface-vessel-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/7518\/","title":{"rendered":"Anduril, Hyundai Heavy Industries set sights on US Navy’s unmanned surface vessel program"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 American defense tech firm Anduril <\/a>and South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries announced today they will partner to design a new class of maritime drones with hopes of securing a spot in the US Navy\u2019s latest unmanned surface vessel program.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnduril and HD Hyundai\u2019s ASV [autonomous surface vessel] is built for modularity, speed of production, and mission flexibility. Its open-architecture design supports interchangeable payloads, allowing the same vessel to perform intelligence, surveillance, strike, electronic warfare, and other missions through rapid reconfiguration,\u201d according to a statement from the American firm. \u201cThe vessel\u2019s distinctive central superstructure provides an unobstructed 360-degree field of view, enabling continuous situational awareness and optimal payload performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The release pitched a version of the ship as a potential entrant for the Modular Attack Surface Craft, the Navy\u2019s latest vision for a family of unmanned surface vessels, envisioned to carry a variety of payloads and be easily built and repaired in large quantities. As Breaking Defense exclusively reported<\/a>, the service is intentionally taking a different approach in soliciting the vessel from industry, foregoing the standard process of laying out a bevy of strict requirements process and instead employing a Defense Innovation Unit-style competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first dual-use ASV prototype is currently being fabricated in Korea, utilizing [HHI\u2019s] industrial capacity to validate designs, integrate propulsion and power systems, automate ship functions with autonomy, and prepare for U.S. production ahead of its maiden voyage,\u201d according to Anduril\u2019s statement. \u201cFuture vessels, including the MASC variant, will be completely built in the United States. Anduril has invested tens of millions of dollars to revamp a previously retired shipyard in the Pacific Northwest region at the historic former Foss Shipyard in Seattle, Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foss Maritime is a transportation and logistics services company handling towing, construction support, barge mooring and other marine services. Foss announced the closure of its Seattle shipyard in October 2021, citing the company\u2019s \u201cregular evaluation of business lines and follows the company\u2019s diligent effort to improve the viability of the Seattle shipyard over many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The closure of numerous commercial and defense-oriented shipyards in recent decades has become an increasingly prolific concern for Pentagon brass who frequently cite China\u2019s exponentially larger shipbuilding output compared to the United States. Anduril said it believes the Pacific Northwest is a prime market for its new maritime drone production.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pacific Northwest, home to the wartime legacy of Kaiser Shipyards and the original Freedom\u2019s Forge, offers the infrastructure, supply chain depth, and skilled labor to expand U.S. shipbuilding capacity,\u201d according to a company statement. \u201cThe region provides the ideal conditions to re-energize American shipbuilding and grow the maritime workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

The defense tech firm, based in California and started by Palmer Luckey in 2017, has aggressively staked out positions in numerous technology sectors prized by the Pentagon in recent years \u2014 to include challenging some of the best-known primes in the country for a chance at both Navy and Air Force unmanned aviation<\/a> programs.<\/p>\n

Hyundai Heavy Industries is one of South Korea\u2019s three major shipbuilders and, alongside its contemporaries such as Hanwha, has been making a sustained push in recent months to establish itself in the American defense industrial base. Those efforts have largely taken the form of industry-to-industry partnerships with American firms, such as the broader partnership HHI announced with Anduril<\/a> last year focused on developing autonomous systems.<\/p>\n

The South Korean company has also recently struck agreements with Germany\u2019s Siemens<\/a> and American shipbuilder HII<\/a> with eyes on furthering its position in the United States\u2019 maritime industrial base.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 American defense tech firm Anduril and South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries announced today they will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[5831,3718,716,295,1659,5832,5833,1737,5834,5835,33],"class_list":{"0":"post-7518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hd-hyundai-heavy","8":"tag-anduril","9":"tag-drones","10":"tag-hd-hyundai-heavy","11":"tag-hyundai","12":"tag-hyundai-heavy-industries","13":"tag-masc","14":"tag-modular-attack-surface-craft","15":"tag-navy","16":"tag-palmer-luckey","17":"tag-securing-the-edge","18":"tag-south-korea"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}