HavocAI and Hanwha are enabling collaborative autonomy across multiple moving Things, elevating AoT™ to new levels from an individual Thing to an Ecosystem of Things.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator is towed into the hangar bay of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush May 13, 2013. This is the first aircraft carrier to catapult-launch an unmanned aircraft from its flight deck.
The Navy plans to have unmanned aircraft on each of its carriers to be used for surveillance and be armed and used in combat roles. The use of unmanned combat systems has evolved in the past 2 decades from a one-off, expensive system launched from expensive platforms, to very low cost autonomous drones , UUVs , autonomous ships and ground vehicles. This has occurred against a backdrop of active conflicts in Ukraine and the the Middle East, as well as tensions between superpowers in Europe and the Pacific, and a fight to control natural resources and rare earth materials . The race to deploy increasingly sophisticated systems in outer space and oceans is on, primarily a contest between the United States, Russia and China.can be leveraged to provide low cost autonomy solutions in the defense and war sector - such assets can be sent into contested areas, minimizing loss of human lives and achieving strategic and tactical goals in warfare. It also reduces the risks of losing expensive assets like ships, submarines, and expensive aerial assets. The advances in AoT™ in the commercial area has been driven by increased sophistication of sensors for perception and localization , as well as path planning and control. Efficient, low power consumption edge computing to learn and implement intelligent decision making has evolved substantially. These advances can be leveraged for defense as well, and can create a force multiplier in conflict environments.Reconnaissance) have been implemented over the past decade, they have generally been launched as a single asset or multiple assets which worked independently.s the next frontier - multiple networked, unmanned systems operating together as a team to execute complex missions, improving survivability and efficiency. These systems, often powered by AI, share data in real-time to make collective decisions based on a human commander’s intent, acting as a force multiplier in contested or dangerous environments. This is where Havoc.ai comes in - "HavocAI was founded 18 months ago by Paul Lwin and Joe Turner, both U.S. Navy veterans and AI experts. Headquartered in Rhode Island, it recently raised $85M to expand operations and has 108 people on staff. The raise was led by B Capital and participation from In-Q-Tel venture arm of the CIA), Lockheed Martin Ventures, Hanwha, Taiwania , Vanderbilt University, Up Partners, Island Green Capital, and Zero Infinity Partners. Early investors Scout Ventures and Outlander Ventures also participated. The investment from Taiwania is especially significant given the tensions in the Taiwan Strait.The company was founded to provide the U.S. Department of War an unfair advantage over its rivals, using physical AI advances to launch collaborative autonomous assets in maritime, terrestrial and aerial environments.trial in a GPS-denied environment. Conducted in Troia, Portugal, the trial showcased real-time coordination between autonomous surface vessels and unmanned aerial vehicles , all managed through a single, unified command interface. Multiple runs were conducted under international signal degradation, and all platforms maintained mission performance through alternate navigation and timing solutions. The demonstration also showcased fused, real-time sensor inputs across both air and surface platforms , identification and tracking of a designated vessel of interest , and autonomous execution of the full kill chain . The focus of this trial was to demonstrate capabilities to the Ukranian defense force, which desperately needs these solutions to fight and defend against a much more powerfully equipped and manned Russian army : Figure 1: A Swarm of ASV Equipped with HavocAI's Autonomy and Sensing Stack Performin a Mission Trial in GPS and Comm-Denied Environments, Troia, PortugalThe motivation for HavocAI’s founders was the realization that nations facing contested littoral and open-sea environments—including Ukraine and other frontline partners , need solutions that leverage advances in physical AI and sensing to create collaborative autonomy between various asset modalities , without persistent connectivity and communications. Given a mission objective, the goal is sense the operating environment, detect and engage targets at machine speed, with or without HITL . HavocAI’s maritime autonomy fleet currently consists of 3 types of vessels, all commercially procured and outfitted with HavocAI’s sensor and compute suites:16 ft. length, all electric, solar panels, 100 nautical mile range, 15 knot max. speed , 300 lb. payload. Primary role is to sense the environment . Other tasks are contested logistics , electronic warfare, and kinetic strike .: in sizes of 20, 30, 46 and 42 ft., these are diesel powered boats, with ranges from 150 - 500 nautical miles, 35 knot max. speed, and up to 4000 lb. payload. Kaikoa primary function is to to operate in conjunction with a fleet of Rampage ASVs, as an autonomous fleet support vessel.100 ft. length, diesel powered, 7400 nautical mile range, 25 knots max. speed, 36,000 lb. cargo capacity. Optimized for long endurance missions with containerized payload integration, including electronic warfare, fires, C-C5ISRT and contested logistics. C-C5ISRT disrupts, degrades, or destroys an adversary’s ability to command their forces, or gather intelligence. It also executes targeting, particularly in contested environments. Atlas is built in strategic collaboration with Lockheed Martin.To date, the company has built 80 ASVs and delivered 33 to customers . The strategy is to procure these craft from commercial manufacturers and outfit them with HavocAI’s customized perception sensor suite , navigation capability and radios . The software stack includes:Path planning and velocity control algorithms based on vehicle dynamic models. These problems are well-studied and proven, and HavocAI builds on these proven control, guidance, and hydrodynamic models that account for resistance, drag, thrust limits, and stability across operating envelopes, including at higher speeds. Tactical simulation and decision making software. This focuses on mission reasoning, tasking, coordination, and supervision across multiple platforms and domains. To date, HavocAI has collected ~100B data points across these dimensions to train and test their systems. Rampage ASVs sell in the $100K range. CEO Paul Lwin indicated that costs scale exponentially with size and payload capacity, so that a 42 ft. Kaikoa is in the ~$1M range and an Atlas in the multi-M$ range. These are still much cheaper than other U.S Navy assets and therefore more expendable and deployable in large volumes. An emerging focus for HavocAI is to design and build an ASV ground up, with purely autonomous operation in mind . Just like Zoox and Nuro designed AVs ground up with autonomous operation in mind, HavocAI is doing the same for ASVs - the belief being that this enables more optimized designs ., a unit of Hanwha, a Korean shipbuilder who already has operations in the United States . Hanwha is the sixth largest shipbuilder in the world, and an investor in the current round. The goal of the collaboration with HavocAI is to build a 200 ft. ASV . The motivation behind larger autonomous ships is logistics capacity - think of the the ability to ship 2 TEU containers with autonomous assets like drones, quadcopters, missiles and autonomous terrestrial vehicles like ATVs and ground rovers) to the shores of contested mission areas, and then operating them as part of HavocAI’s collaborative autonomy stack. As opposed to manned large ships which take 6 years to build, are expensive and need expensive docking structures, this offers faster scaling and more cost effective capacity . HavocAI’s autonomy stack works equally well on aerial and terrestrial autonomy assets, as evidenced by the demonstrations in Troia, Portugal and Geoje . Per Mr. Lwin, “ HavocAI is a collaborative autonomy company, and our software is running on aerial, ground and maritime vehicles. When I see a boat, I see it as a moving thing, which HavocAI enables collaboration with”. Hanwha Defense USA’s focus is on advancing the capabilities of ground combat forces through innovative and mission-oriented solutions. The company specializes in cutting-edge manned and unmanned combat systems, artillery, and advanced ammunition to enhance survivability and operational efficiency on the battlefield. It is a division of the Hanwha Group of South Korea, a seasoned builder of maritime vehicles for commercial and defense applications. The rationale for the partnership with HavocAI is to combine Hanwha’s shipbuilding and manufacturing capabilities with HavocAI’s collaborative autonomy technology, with potential large-scale production of autonomous surface vessels for defense applications. A rendering of the 200 ft. ASV is shown in Figure 3:Hanwha acquired the Philly Shipyard location in December 2024 for $100M, the original goal being to leverage Hanwha’s maritime expertise toAccording to Hanwha Defense CEO, Michael Coulter, the Hanwha’s investment in the United States goes beyond expanding nuclear submarine capability for the U.S. Navy. The company’s focus on efficient and autonomous ship manufacturing and mature supply chain enables high volume, low cost delivery of commercial and defense maritime vehicles, in surface and sub-surface environments . The goal is to bring this experience to bear in the United States.n Korea where Havoc AI conducted an autonomous force protection mission remotely off the coast of Hawaii, with beyond-line-of-sight command and control. The partnership with HavocAI on designing bottoms-up for autonomous operations builds on Hanwha’s experience in delivering ships with minimal human presence or control. Autonomy enables efficient use of space , leading to leaner or more efficient designs. Autonomy for the U.S. Navy follows awhere a manned frigate or destroyer is accompanied by forward deployment of a large number of distributed autonomous asset. The Hanwha- HavocAI collaboration on the 200 ft, ASV enables this.“By forging a partnership between an allied defense company with advanced manufacturing scale in Hanwha with a software-first defense technology company in HavocAI, we will deliver state-of-the art ASVs at scale for American service members. This agreement will deliver for the American warfighter and create much-needed competition for the Department of War acquisition process".
Hanwha Hanwha US Defense Philly Shipyard Autonomy Of Things Physical AI Aot
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