Blue Water Autonomy
Autonomous warships for the open ocean, built to scale for the US Navy.
The product
Blue Water Autonomy designs and builds fully autonomous, unmanned naval surface vessels engineered for long-endurance, open-ocean missions. Its first platform is the Liberty Class, a 67.70-meter, 810-metric-ton steel medium unmanned surface vessel designed for 2-3-month missions, a 10,700-nautical-mile range, 25-knot speed, and six 40-foot container payloads. The ship integrates Level 4 autonomy with modular engine rooms and an open, software-defined ship architecture, and Blue Water is teamed with Conrad Shipyard in Morgan City, Louisiana, for serial production.
The thesis
The US Navy's surface fleet is shrinking just as China's is growing, and traditional shipyards cannot scale fast enough. Blue Water Autonomy reindustrializes American shipbuilding by combining a Jones Act-aligned domestic yard partner with autonomy that removes the cost and risk of crewed warships, enabling the Navy to field a much larger, attritable fleet of capable hulls. It is one of a small handful of US startups credibly contesting the unmanned naval surface vessel category at warship scale.
How it runs
Designs and integrates long-endurance autonomous surface vessels, using full-scale test ships for ocean trials and U.S. shipyard and supplier partners for construction and serial production.
How it earns
Revenue is contract-driven: Blue Water is eligible to compete for fixed-price task orders under a U.S. Navy multiple-award IDIQ for ocean-floor mapping services. Public sources do not disclose vessel unit pricing or guarantee revenue under the $40 million shared contract ceiling.
Why it wins
Blue Water combines Liberty's 67.70-meter, 810-metric-ton steel hull and 10,700-nautical-mile range with Open Keel, an AI-ready ship-data architecture; A-CHENG, a purpose-built autonomous chief engineer; modular containerized engine rooms; and an ocean-test program spanning Ironsides and Atlantic Endurance. Blue Water says Atlantic Endurance is the first U.S. Subchapter L offshore service vessel to receive Coast Guard approval for autonomous testing.
Evidence ledger
- website · 2026-04-29
Blue Water Autonomy identifies as a reindustrialization company.
https://www.blw.ai - web · 2026-09-29
Blue Water describes Open Keel as an AI-ready data layer connecting ship subsystems Blue Water describes A-CHENG as a system intended to operate the engineering plant of a fully unmanned vessel The company identifies Ironsides as a 100-foot, 170-ton full-stack test vessel and Atlantic Endurance as an 82-foot navigation-autonomy test vessel Blue Water says Atlantic Endurance received Coast Guard approval for autonomous testing and is used for frequent collision-regulation testing
https://www.blw.ai/technology - web · 2026-09-23
Conrad and Blue Water are continuing to build the 190-foot steel Liberty vessel from a Damen-derived parent design Blue Water did not receive a Navy Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel prototype award USNI reported that Blue Water and Saildrone were suing the Navy over the selection
https://news.usni.org/2026/09/23/three-louisiana-shipyards-are-vying-for-a-stake-in-navys-autonomous-future - web · 2026-09-29
Blue Water's press page links the September 23, 2026 USNI report
https://www.blw.ai/press - web · 2026-10-09
Liberty is a 67.70-meter, 810-metric-ton medium unmanned surface vessel designed for missions lasting 2-3 months and independent Pacific crossings. The current Liberty specifications list a 10,700-nautical-mile range, 25-knot speed, steel structure, Level 4 autonomy, and capacity for six 40-foot containers.
https://www.blw.ai/libertyclass
Articles, news, and updates
No tagged mentions for Blue Water Autonomy yet.