Quadrupling its valuation to $4bn from its last round 7/2024. Plans to build a shipyard ('Port Alpha') for 24ft autonomous surface vessels (ASVs), and in future large unmanned ships.
Defense tech is the new hot sector in Silicon Valley, buoyed by similar monster rounds at Anduril and possibly Shield AI next.
There is a use case for for small autonomous surface vessels in port defense. The US military might buy a few to protect bases in the Middle East and Asia Pacific region.
But how does anyone think that large unmanned ships are ever going to work? Equipment requires constant preventive maintenance and still breaks down all the time. Who is going to do that work?
So far, from a technology demonstration perspective, it has become somewhat clear that more degrees of freedom makes autonomous operations easier. road vehicles suffer from terrible decision making in realtime whereas airplanes and drones seem to work sufficiently for cost effective operations. Ships are somewhere inbetween. As long as they are autonomous enough to return to base then maintenance shouldn't be a blocker. Also, the living space requirements on a ship is also a risk because of free surface effects on the interiour.
I think autonomous marine assets are as effective as their engine reliability.
Cheap asymmetric warfare against an adversary without electronic countermeasures.
Not just port defense.
The Ukraine war showed satellite-guided USV ships could work against a Russian navy ship (Sergey Kotov, damaged 9/2023 and then sunk 3/2024), admittedly only because it doesn't have countermeasures and defense systems. And 12/2024 one shot down a Russian Mi-8 helicopter, first ever by ASV. I think all this says more about the Russian military lack of capabilities. But there's a niche.
> how does anyone think that large unmanned ships are ever going to work?
"large" simply means >24ft. Think of a small barge.
Depends on the mission. Presumably launching or refueling/recharging a swarm of smaller drones, surveillance, minesweeping. I don't know, it's not my area. But clearly there is a lot of investment in this so the sector is real.
7 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 30.7 ms ] threadDefense tech is the new hot sector in Silicon Valley, buoyed by similar monster rounds at Anduril and possibly Shield AI next.
But how does anyone think that large unmanned ships are ever going to work? Equipment requires constant preventive maintenance and still breaks down all the time. Who is going to do that work?
I think autonomous marine assets are as effective as their engine reliability.
The Ukraine war showed satellite-guided USV ships could work against a Russian navy ship (Sergey Kotov, damaged 9/2023 and then sunk 3/2024), admittedly only because it doesn't have countermeasures and defense systems. And 12/2024 one shot down a Russian Mi-8 helicopter, first ever by ASV. I think all this says more about the Russian military lack of capabilities. But there's a niche.
> how does anyone think that large unmanned ships are ever going to work?
"large" simply means >24ft. Think of a small barge. Depends on the mission. Presumably launching or refueling/recharging a swarm of smaller drones, surveillance, minesweeping. I don't know, it's not my area. But clearly there is a lot of investment in this so the sector is real.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/12/31/one-of-ukra...
It is so obvious that anduril et al are the way of the future (in regards to warfare), and there is no way for the little guy to capitalize on it.