HD Hyundai and Anduril sail a 368-ton uncrewed warship off California

HD Hyundai has taken a converted US Navy test ship to sea off California with no crew aboard and let two companies' software run it. The Korean shipbuilding group said on Oct 19 that it had recently held a joint demonstration with Anduril Industries, the US defence technology company, in which a 368-ton uncrewed surface vessel sailed off the Port of Long Beach under HD Hyundai's VAone autonomy system and Anduril's Lattice mission software. HD Hyundai called it the first such demonstration by a Korean company in US waters.

The statement was carried by Korean and English-language outlets on Oct 19, including The Korea Herald and Straight News; at publication it had not been posted on HD Hyundai's own press page, so the details below are the company's account as reported. What is at stake is whether a shipbuilder that sells hulls can also sell the autonomy inside them to the US Navy, a market where venture-funded American builders have raised billions this year.

What the ship did in three and a half hours

The demonstration ran for about 3.5 hours, according to the company. The vessel worked through scripted scenarios that included autonomous navigation, a change of mission while under way, formation operations and an emergency response to an engine failure. A shore-based control centre relayed the whole run, so that the roughly 40 observers could follow the vessel's decisions in real time.

Those observers included representatives of the US Navy, the US Coast Guard, the American Bureau of Shipping, the Republic of Korea Navy and Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration, as well as Anduril, HD Hyundai said. Chang Kwang-pil, executive vice president and head of HD Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering's future technology research institute, led the HD Hyundai side.

Two software stacks, one hull

The ship was a 368-ton large uncrewed surface test vessel previously operated by the US Navy and modified for the trial, the company said. It carried two systems. VAone is HD Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering's naval autonomy package. It is built on HiNAS Prime, the navigation system of Avikus, HD Hyundai's autonomous shipping subsidiary, and adds a machinery module that monitors engine condition, detects faults and responds automatically, plus a damage module that detects hull damage and acts on it.

Lattice is Anduril's mission autonomy platform. Combined, HD Hyundai said, the two covered navigation, machinery, damage control and weapons, which it described as the full set needed for a vessel with no one aboard. The split matters. HD Hyundai supplies the layer that keeps a ship alive and moving, and Anduril supplies the layer that decides what the ship is for. HD Hyundai did not disclose the demonstration date, latency figures, the name of the vessel or whether any weapon was fired rather than simulated.

Where the money in uncrewed boats has gone

In MEKAWIRE's records the uncrewed-vessel money is American. Saronic closed a $1.75 billion Series D at a $9.25 billion valuation on March 31, 2.31 times its Series C valuation, and has raised $2.58 billion across four rounds. Shield AI raised $1.5 billion at $12.7 billion days earlier, and Anduril itself announced a $5 billion Series H on May 13, 2.86 times Saronic's round. Saab and Sweden's FMV launched a large uncrewed underwater vehicle demonstrator on Oct 16. HD Hyundai is entering this field as a partner of one of those funded companies rather than as a rival to it.