Metal Shark, a Louisiana-based boat builder and major supplier for the U.S. Armed Forces and allied partners, and HavocAI, a leader in maritime swarm autonomy, announced a strategic partnership to integrate HavocAI’s proven collaborative autonomy platform across Metal Shark’s existing fleet of High-Speed Manoeuvrable Unmanned Surface Vessels (HSMUSVs).
This first-of-its-kind deployment demonstrates that advanced autonomous maritime capabilities required to defend the United States are not just conceptual—they are operational and ready for immediate use.
Already deployed with the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army, and used in live operational settings by multiple international allies, HavocAI’s collaborative autonomy technology will allow a single operator to quickly and effectively conduct complex operations involving multiple Metal Shark HSMUSVs simultaneously. This technology enables unprecedented interoperability and lethality through autonomous, intelligent boat swarms that overwhelm adversaries. Metal Shark has won multiple major U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to produce various patrol boats. The company is currently producing the U.S. Navy’s next-generation 40 PB combatant craft, and 85′ Near Coastal Patrol Vessels, establishing itself as a key supplier of welded aluminium military vessels to the Navy and other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.
“We’re not just announcing a partnership—we’re once again demonstrating that real autonomy is available right now for existing warfighting platforms,” said Paul Lwin, CEO of HavocAI. “Metal Shark’s engineering excellence and track record of delivering thousands of reliable vessels to military and commercial operators worldwide makes them the ideal partner for expanding HavocAI’s proven collaborative autonomy capabilities.”
The collaboration positions HavocAI as a leader in heterogeneous autonomy – it’s not tied to single hull designs or manufacturers, but is scalable across diverse fleets, enabling operators to leverage existing vessel investments while adding cutting-edge autonomous capabilities. This interoperability eliminates the constraints of single-vendor solutions.
“Simply put, we chose to partner with HavocAI because they are demonstrating real and substantial, head-turning operational results in the autonomous surface vessels space,” said Chris Allard, CEO of Metal Shark. “Over the years, Metal Shark has built and delivered over 400 autonomous or remote operated vessels, and the scale and maturity of HavocAI’s platform in such a short time made them the perfect partner for us.”
The partnership addresses the U.S. and allied militaries’ critical needs for heterogeneous fleet coordination – mixed fleets of different sizes and capabilities to operate cohesively, maximizing mission flexibility and asset utilization.
In the past 20 years Metal Shark has designed, built, and delivered well over 2,000 vessels for U.S. and foreign militaries and first responders , while more recently debuting innovative autonomous platforms like the United States Marine Corps Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel (LRUSV), Prowler semi-submersible USV and Frenzy micro-USV, and delivering their new HSMUSV at production rates of up to one unit per day.
This year, HavocAI has announced production and integration partnerships with Lockheed Martin, PacMar Technologies, and Tocaro Blue, and their products have been effectively utilized by warfighters in nearly a dozen official U.S. military missions and exercises.
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