Blue Water Autonomy
@BlueWaterShips
Building the world's best autonomous ships. Designed for mass production. Developed for endurance on the open ocean. Delivered to evolve with warfare.
🚀 Today, we are proud to announce $14M in seed funding, reveal our world-class team, and share our vision for the future of #maritimeautonomy
The Royal Navy gained the capability to deploy crewless minesweeping equipment to hunt and destroy mines for the first time 🇬🇧 #MineWarfare 💥 navalnews.com/naval-news/202…
We are proud to endorse the SHIPS Act, especially thoughtful language for: - Shipbuilding opportunity zones + tax credits - Supports maritime innovation and tech - Grows the shipbuilding workforce - Encourage @USNavy and @USCG to build ships with commercial best practices
SHIPBUILDING = @SECNAV's #1 priority. We heard it pretty clearly. Let's build.
ICYMI…@SECNAV at @reindsummit 2.0: “I believe we’ve spent the last ten years teaching people how to code. We need to spend the next ten years teaching people how to use their hands.” WATCH:
Time to build some unmanned ships
Coverage this week of the shipbuilding space deserves some commentary. Here's mine: 1⃣ Final departures of White House / NSC shipbuilding folks drove negative coverage (and triggered @johnkonrad) 2⃣ Potential shakeup of Navy acquisitions drove Politico story that could have…
Thanks @tectonicdefense for covering our Washington D.C. office opening. tectonicdefense.com/exclusive-blue…
This week, we opened a permanent presence in Washington D.C. growing our team and opening our third office. We are pleased to welcome Ryan Maatta, who will lead Blue Water's marine engineering team. Ryan has deep experience from oil and gas to defense and unmanned. Our new D.C.…
🚨 NEW POD IS LIVE 🚨 Austin Gray is building fully unmanned warships for the United States Navy. As co-founder and CSO of Blue Water Autonomy, he’s taking on legacy shipbuilders with a defense startup mindset. We cover: - Autonomy’s impact on naval fleet architecture - What…
Time to make some mass-producible ships
🇺🇸🏭Jake's argument about cost disease applies to shipbuilding and broad manufacturing as well as housing and healthcare. - Ships are built bespoke and on cost+ - Costs pile up and schedules slip - You're paying for labor and labor-intensive services at the shipyard, not the…
Shipbuilding in America, for America's Navy is no hopeful delusion. It's necessity.
🏭Is manufacturing a nostalgic political delusion? Last month, @TheEconomist argued just that. But this week readers pushed back with sharp letters. Let's look at both sides: 🤔Core to the "delusion" argument: duplicating manufacturing and supply chains in the rich world is…
It’s almost like we need maritime power to be safe and prosperous??
And what do they have in common? All on the coast or along navigable and improved waterways that penetrate deep inland Maritime commerce drives the global economy
We started with a 100 ton test vessel. Steel on the salt water. Because shipbuilding is hard.
Me when I see USV companies hyped as "the future of shipbuilding". 40ft aluminum USV's are super cool, but that's not a ship. We're building 300'x54', 900-ton barges *so we can scale up to ships*. And getting from there to 600'x100' ships will still be really hard.
Bingo. There is only one USV company focused on ship-sized products. Many USV companies are doing great things for 🇺🇸⚓️ - some of them are even starting to talk about shipbuilding! BUT shipbuilding is challenging and needs focus. CC .@bluewaterships #shipbuilding
Me when I see USV companies hyped as "the future of shipbuilding". 40ft aluminum USV's are super cool, but that's not a ship. We're building 300'x54', 900-ton barges *so we can scale up to ships*. And getting from there to 600'x100' ships will still be really hard.
Massive market for unmanned naval vessels
The $50B question: how big is the US drone & unmanned market??? $50B isn't a hype number. It’s grounded in data, Ukrainian battlefield math, and early Pentagon budget signals. 🧠 Start with the simplest wartime logic: - Payloads matter (sensors, weapons) - Platforms carry them…
Time to build some ships
Rebuilding our industrial base is a matter of National Security.
Navy x Tech Disconnect = Big Problem. @reindsummit and @USNavy's Maritime Industrial Base (MIB) forum are on the same day. One in Detroit, one in Arlington. I realize that very few people in VC and tech bro world would ever consider attending the MIB industry day - BUT how…
The case for reindustrializing shipbuilding is that our foes can’t just buy water to store dormant drones around moving naval vessels…
🤔 Tech companies are making massive promises about how they're transforming shipbuilding. But software can't bend steel. 🏭 ⚓ At the worst moment in history for American shipbuilding, we have no time for reality distortion fields about "just doing it differently." 🛑 None…
💡“You can take risk” @MarkCMontgomery explains how Naval leadership can build the unmanned fleet, FAST. @CavasShips nails that the Navy must move past endless unmanned experimentation in order to evolve with the pace of warfare. BZ gents Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cav…
Time for some teambuilding to catalyze some shipbuilding
🚀 We're hiring - here's who for: FIRST full-time customer-facing role at Blue Water Autonomy ⚓ Obsessed with Naval and Joint warfighting tech & CONOPS ✍ Lethaly articulate in word, powerpoint, and various content forms 💰 Demonstrated understanding of how DoD buys steel,…
Time for some shipbuilding - let’s meet the challenge of contested logistics
🚨🚨 Best piece on the Pacific #logistics challenge I’ve read in months: MacArthur’s Ghost - Logistics and Sustainment for the Pacific Fight. Here’s my breakdown & the full post 🧵
My number one: Blue Water Autonomy 1⃣Led by a SWO + experience downrange in Ukraine 2⃣They know the space, they know what it takes to operate a ship at sea, they started big right away 3⃣Naval power = large payloads that can put the adversarial ships at the bottom
Next up: Maritime Autonomy Power Rankings and @saltystrategist is starting off HOT With a fifth pick that is actually a first pick... Shout out to the boys form @BlueWaterShips led by Surface Warfare Officer @AustinEGray . Despite being a newer entrant, Knickerbocker sees the…