Damen, Blue Water Autonomy partner on ship for U.S. Navy

Damen Shipyards Group announced a license agreement with Blue Water Autonomy, a Boston-based technology and shipbuilding company, under which Blue Water Autonomy will construct the Liberty class, a 60-meter steel autonomous ship designed by the two companies in partnership. The ship’s design is intended to support a range of missions, including missile, sensor and logistics payloads, and offers the U.S Navy a vessel that is immediately producible with existing U.S. shipyards and commercial supply chains.

The Liberty Clas is a 60-meter steel autonomous ship designed to support months-long deployment and serial production. (Source: Damen Shipyards Group)

Liberty class is a reference to the Liberty Ships of World War II, which were produced rapidly and at scale to meet urgent national needs. The current Liberty class vessels will be built on Damen’s Stan Patrol 6009 hull design, selected due to its Axe Bow, a distinctive, vertical bow that slices cleanly through the waves, minimizing slamming and allowing more gradual wave re-entry. The bull shape design reduces technical risk, said Damen, allowing Blue Water to focus engineering on re-architecting the vessel’s internal systems for autonomous operation. The resulting platform is said to retain the hull’s performance, payload capacity and seakeeping characteristics, while supporting months-long deployment and serial production.

To achieve autonomy, Blue Water redesigned the vessel starting with the engine room and extending to the ship’s mechanical and electrical systems through autonomous configuration of fault-tolerant propulsion systems. According to the companies, those design choices will enable automated control and fault management with limited human intervention on months-long deployments, resulting in an operational range of approximately 10,000 nautical miles and 150 tonnes of payload capacity.

“The Liberty class reflects our focus on building autonomous ships that are designed from the start for long-duration operations and repeat production,” said Rylan Hamilton, CEO of Blue Water Autonomy. “By adapting a proven hull and re-engineering it for unmanned operations, we’re delivering a vessel that can operate for extended periods without crew while being produced at a pace the Navy urgently needs. This is a modern take on an old idea: building capable ships quickly and at scale.”

Construction of the first vessel is scheduled to begin at Conrad Shipyard in Louisiana, USA, in March 2026. It is expected to be completed for the U.S. Navy later this year.

Following delivery of the first ship, Blue Water plans to move into serial production, targeting 10 to 20 vessels per year.