A new era of naval operations is on the horizon, as Blue Water Autonomy’s unmanned ships leverage tightly integrated hardware, software, and AI to map the ocean floor and transform maritime research.

Blue Water Autonomy is rapidly turning unmanned ships from a concept into an operational reality.

After showcasing its Liberty Class autonomous vessel to the U.S. Navy, the company announced a wave of strategic partnerships tied to the Navy’s Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) program, which includes $6 billion in funding to scale up production.

Currently under construction at Conrad Shipyard, these vessels merge traditional shipbuilding expertise with AI-enabled production systems.

“Traditional shipbuilding doesn’t scale, and pure software approaches don’t deliver hardware,” said Rylan Hamilton, CEO of Blue Water Autonomy, on the company’s website.

“We’re doing both. Integrating proven marine systems with AI-driven manufacturing and operations to fundamentally rethink how ships are built. By distributing and parallelizing work across proven partners, we’re creating a production system that can move at the pace required for a modern maritime industrial base.”

The power of many

The company is harnessing the power of many to realize the future of shipbuilding. Its manufacturing model incorporates multiple industrial partners responsible for different parts of the impressive ship: Tulip will provide a manufacturing execution system, Caterpillar Defense will supply marine diesel engines, and Valsted will support the automation systems.

“Shipbuilding has always required extraordinary coordination, and we’re giving that coordination a software backbone,” explained Erik Mirandette, chief business officer at Tulip. “Tulip connects every step on the factory floor with real-time data and AI-native tools, so Blue Water can orchestrate production at scale, catch issues earlier, and build with the speed and reliability that modern maritime demands.”

Building on this initiative, Blue Water Autonomy is quickly expanding its reach. According to a recent news release, its unmanned, AI-powered vessel will now map the ocean floor—a mission the Navy sees as central to the future of military marine research. The Navy’s interest underscores its commitment to using the most advanced systems available for modern maritime operations.

Moving fast

On August 4, 2026, Blue Water Autonomy won a multiple-award contract with the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) to provide “high-resolution mapping using long-endurance uncrewed surface vessels” across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

The company added that deep open-ocean surveys are “among the most demanding work at sea,” and the goal extends well beyond mapping, as the Navy must navigate not only the seas, but also underwater acoustics. These conditions “shape how naval forces move and operate far from the shore.”

Traditionally, these missions relied on costly crewed vessels—often running tens of thousands of dollars a day and requiring travel far from shore. With uncrewed, AI-powered ships, NAVOCEANO and the Navy aim to reduce costs, minimize risk, and dramatically expand the scope of ocean research.

Thanks to AI, these vessels “can operate on the open ocean for months at a time.”

The multi-year NAVOCEANO contract comes with a $40 million ceiling, but Blue Water Autonomy will still have to compete for funding alongside other selected companies.

“Mapping the open ocean is exactly the kind of long, high-endurance work that autonomous vessels are built for,” said Rylan Hamilton, CEO of Blue Water Autonomy. “This selection puts our autonomy to work across the Indian and Pacific oceans, well beyond the range of a crewed survey ship, and it shows the technology we are building serves many different missions.”

As artificial intelligence and automation reshape the naval landscape, the need for large crews is diminishing—and machines may well steer the future of the world’s oceans.

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Graham Corporation has secured two US defense contracts worth more than $43 million to supply equipment for the MK48 Mod 7 heavyweight torpedo and the country’s submarine fleet.

The New York-based manufacturer announced the awards on August 7.

The contracts cover alternators and regulators for the torpedo program and new MK19 Mod 2 air turbine pump assemblies for submarine spares, supporting the US Navy’s undersea warfare capabilities and fleet readiness.

Power systems for the MK48 torpedo

The first award exercises the fourth option year of an existing contract supporting the MK48 Mod 7 Heavyweight Torpedo program. It was awarded during Graham’s first quarter of fiscal 2027, which ended June 30, 2026.

Under the option, Graham will continue supplying alternators and regulators used within the torpedo system. Alternators generate electrical power, while regulators manage the resulting voltage and current to help onboard electronics operate reliably.

These components are particularly important in a heavyweight torpedo, where propulsion, guidance, sensing and control systems must function under demanding underwater conditions.

Reliable power management can support target acquisition and navigation while helping the weapon maintain performance throughout its mission.

The MK48 is launched from submarines and is designed to engage hostile submarines and surface ships.

Continued component orders also indicate that the US is sustaining and upgrading an established weapon as undersea competition becomes increasingly important.

Submarine pumps to arrive from 2028

Graham received the second contract during its fiscal 2027 second quarter, which ends September 30, 2026. The company will manufacture new-build MK19 Mod 2 air turbine pump assemblies for the submarine fleet’s spare-parts inventory.

Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2028 and continue through 2030. The extended delivery period could help the Navy maintain a dependable supply of replacement hardware for submarines already in service.

Air turbine pumps convert energy from pressurized air into mechanical pumping power.

On submarines, equipment of this kind can support essential fluid-handling functions in environments where compact construction, dependable operation and tight performance tolerances are critical.

Maintaining spare assemblies also reduces the risk of a component shortage keeping a submarine out of service for longer than necessary.

The contract therefore supports not only equipment production but also maintenance planning and operational availability.

$43 million added to defense backlog

Revenue from the MK48 Mod 7 and MK19 Mod 2 awards will be recorded in Graham’s fiscal 2027 first- and second-quarter backlog. The deals extend the company’s role as a supplier of specialized technologies for US defense platforms.

“These awards reflect the continued demand we’re seeing across our defense platforms, and demonstrate the durability of our customer relationships built over years of consistent execution,” said Matthew Malone, President and CEO of Graham Corporation.

“Our mission-critical applications remain vital in helping our customers meet high-level performance requirements. We’re proud to continue supporting the MK48 and submarine programs and look forward to building on this momentum,” he added.

Beyond defense, Graham develops fluid, power, heat-transfer, vacuum and advanced mixing technologies for the space, energy and process industries.

The latest awards reinforce how those engineering capabilities are being applied to torpedo reliability, submarine maintenance and the long-term readiness of America’s undersea fleet.

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When the Federal Aviation Administration shut down air traffic to El Paso Airport earlier this year, nobody could have guessed than an experimental high-energy laser weapon was the cause. After days of chaos and speculation, it was revealed that Customs and Border Patrol officials had fired off a laser volley from a US Army base adjacent the El Paso Airport.

Though the trigger-happy Border Patrol grunts evidently thought they were firing at drug-smuggling drones, their real target turned out to be a kids’ party balloon. Regardless, it was later reported that the cutting-edge weapon was taken for a test-drive a week before FAA and Pentagon officials had a chance to discuss how to safely implement the laser device, making it a small miracle that nobody in the air was killed.

Not every use of an experimental aerospace weapon goes off without a hitch, however.

New bombshell reporting by Wired reveals an incident in which the testing of an experimental GPS jammer resulted in a medical plane crashing into the side of a mountain.

The horrifying incident happened in May, the publication reports, when a small twin-engine medevac aircraft carrying two pilots and two medical workers departed from Roswell, New Mexico. Heading West for the small mountain village of Ruidoso, the crew became the victim of an electronic warfare exercise being conducted at the nearby White Sands Missile Range, a test which rendered their navigational system inoperable.

Due to a combination of low visibility and an air-traffic control that was stretched far beyond capacity — at least three other planes reported navigation disruptions due to the GPS jamming — the pilots failed to register a mountainous formation between their plane and the landing strip.

As airline pilot and aviation crash analyst Juan Browne told Wired, the visual effect of that approach would have been stupefying. “When those lights go out, man, you know you are in big trouble,” Browne explained.

Unfortunately, the disoriented crew ran straight into the side of a mountain they likely never saw, resulting in the loss of every life on board. It’s the first known instance where military GPS jamming played a role in downing a civilian plane in US airspace. Reported incidents of GPS jamming within the continental US have skyrocketed in recent years. According to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the number of GPS interference events went from four in 2020 to 50 in 2024, and 40 across 2025.

After the initial publication of this piece, a spokesperson for the US Army provided a statement in response.

“The Army is aware of the release of the NTSB’s preliminary report into the crash of a civilian medical evacuation flight on May 14 in the vicinity of Ruidoso, New Mexico,” it read. “As the incident remains under investigation, we cannot comment at this time.”

Though the crew involved in the New Mexico crash was warned that GPS interference may be present, there evidently weren’t enough safeguards or air traffic control personnel in place to prevent a tragedy.

Updated with comment from the US Army.

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