{"id":88407,"date":"2026-02-13T19:22:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/892202139\/sTBIgV41GIM_-IT5"},"modified":"2026-02-13T19:22:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:22:41","slug":"us-shipbuilding-boost-tie-up-on-autonomous-naval-craft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/us-shipbuilding-boost-tie-up-on-autonomous-naval-craft\/","title":{"rendered":"US shipbuilding boost: tie-up on autonomous naval craft"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Boston-based technology and shipbuilding company, Blue Water Economy, and <\/span>Damen<\/a><\/span> Shipyards Group have signed a license agreement relating to the construction of new 60-mtr \u2018Liberty Class\u2019 autonomous ships for the <\/span>US<\/a><\/span> Navy. With a payload capacity of more than 150 tonnes, the ships will have a range of 10,000 nautical miles. <\/span><\/p>\n

The vessels will be built at Conrad Shipyard, Louisiana, with construction of the first ship scheduled to begin in March. Up to 20 Liberty-Class units could be built each year when serial production gets underway, the companies said. This reflects the significance of the Class nomenclature \u2018Liberty\u2019: more than 2,700 Liberty ships were mass-produced in US shipyards during World War 2. <\/span><\/p>\n

The new Liberty Class will be built based on Damen\u2019s Stan Patrol 6009 design, This incorporates the shipbuilder\u2019s distinctive Axe Bow, a vertical bow that slices through water, minimising slamming and saving fuel. More than 300 vessels with this bow profile are in service around the world.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Related:<\/span>Consilium highlights the Future of Safety at IMarEST UAE<\/a><\/p>\n

Blue Water Autonomy CEO, Rylan Hamilton, said: \u201cThe Liberty Class reflects our focus on building autonomous ships that are designed from the start for long-duration operations and repeat production. By adapting a proven hull and re-engineering it for unmanned operations, we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While various navies are pioneering autonomy across a range of ship types, there are many applications in merchant shipping too. Damen has various projects in sectors including tugs, patrol craft and workboats.<\/span><\/p>\n

Norwegian companies are also leaders in the field. Norwegian fertilizer company, Yara International, for  example, has been running the Yara Birkeland, a fully electric autonomous container ship carrying fertilizer on 13-km transits between Porsgrunn and Brevik on the Oslo Fjord since 2022.   <\/span><\/p>\n

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The Boston-based technology and shipbuilding<\/span> company, Blue Water Economy, and … 6009 design, This incorporates the shipbuilder<\/span>\u00e2\u0080\u0099s distinctive Axe Bow, a … are many applications in merchant shipping<\/span> too. Damen has various projects …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}