Built in a Year, Crewed by None: HD Hyundai and Anduril Launch a 600-Tonne Unmanned Vessel in Ulsan
Shipyards in Ulsan are used to sending large, complicated vessels into the water. What entered the harbour at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries on Thursday was smaller than the destroyers that usually dominate the yard, and different in a more important respect: it is meant to go to sea without anyone on board.
The 600-tonne autonomous surface vessel is the first ship that South Korea’s HD Hyundai has completed together with the American defence firm Anduril Industries. About seventy officials attended the launch, among them HD Hyundai Heavy Industries president Joo Won-ho, Anduril chief operating officer Matt Grimm, Anduril’s senior vice president for maritime and maneuver Shane Arnott, and representatives of the US military and the American embassy in Seoul. The two companies signed their development agreement only a year earlier, a timetable far shorter than the several years a naval vessel normally takes to build.
Two software stacks, one empty bridge
The hull, referred to in Korean coverage as ASV Alpha, pairs two complementary systems. VAone, a ship-autonomy platform developed by HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, folds in the autonomous navigation work of HD Hyundai subsidiary Avikus and adds machinery monitoring, fault detection and automatic responses to equipment failures or damage. Anduril’s Lattice, an artificial-intelligence platform built for mission management, sits on top of that foundation.
Together, the companies say, the software can handle navigation, machinery, damage control and even weapons systems without a crew, and do so for long stretches that they argue meet US Navy requirements. The missions they have in mind are reconnaissance, surveillance and maritime intelligence gathering. This is not a pint-sized destroyer so much as a persistent scout that does not get tired and does not need a bunk.
From California, back to Ulsan, and across the Pacific again
The launch is not the pair’s first outing together. In October they demonstrated a smaller, 368-tonne autonomous vessel off Long Beach, California. The new ship will first go through sea trials and final outfitting off the Ulsan coast, then travel to the United States for further testing in early 2027. Arnott called the result “a highly capable autonomous warship designed for extended operations without a crew,” and said Anduril looks forward to demonstrating it in American waters next year and expanding the fleet with HD Hyundai.
Joo framed the ceremony as proof of “the combined strength of HD Hyundai’s shipbuilding capabilities and autonomous navigation technologies,” and pledged to keep pushing for a leading position in the unmanned surface vessel market. For a Korean yard already known for some of the world’s most sophisticated commercial and naval ships, the wager is that speed and software, not only steel, will decide who supplies the next generation of naval craft.
Why a 600-tonne prototype matters
Navies on both sides of the Pacific have spent years talking about uncrewed vessels that can watch a stretch of sea for weeks without drawing on scarce sailors. A medium-sized prototype that can actually be launched, rather than merely announced, is the first real test of whether that talk can be turned into a product the US Navy might one day buy. The American market is the prize both companies have named out loud.
Plenty remains unproven. Trials will show whether the machinery can look after itself in real weather, and whether an empty ship can be trusted with weapons software as well as with a tiller. Those questions will follow the hull across the ocean early next year. For now, the fact that matters in Ulsan is simpler: a 600-tonne autonomous vessel got from a contract to the water in twelve months.