We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Maritime autonomy is all the rage, and the hype only seems to be growing.
This morning, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) company Vatn Systems announced a twofer in an exclusive release to Tectonic: First, they’re opening a new, higher-capacity production facility in Bristol, Rhode Island. And second, they’re unveiling a new, larger-format AUV, the Skelmir S12.
Vatn CEO Nelson Mills told Tectonic that these kinds of build-outs are critical to revamping defense manufacturing. “It’s great if you can build a few cool vehicles,” he said, “But if you can’t scale that production, it’s ultimately not helping the industrial base.”
Out at sea: Vatn Systems was founded in 2023 by a team of maritime and military experts, helmed by Nelson and his brother Freddie, now COO. The company:
- Raised a $13M seed round from investors including DYNE Ventures, RTX Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures, and In-Q-Tel last year.
- Aims to make affordable underwater drones that can be deployed en masse, with an eye on conflicts like a potential war with China in the Indo-Pacific.
- Says it went from concept to in-the-water prototype of their AUV in less than six months.
- Produces drones for both commercial and defense purposes. The AUVs can be used for port security or search and rescue, as well as for carrying explosive payloads.
Last month, the company announced a partnership with Palantir to scale up and digitize manufacturing and streamline its supply chain.
Scale-up: And it seems they’re doing just that. The new production facility in Bristol was set up using Palantir’s tech, Mills said, which means they can do a lot more with fewer people.
- At maximum capacity, the facility (built in an old rubber factory, fun fact) will be able to churn out 2,000 AUVs a year. Currently, Vatn is at about 120 a year, Mills said.
- The facility will be at full capacity and ready to rumble by this July and will be able to produce both commercial and military vessels, large and small.
- At full capacity, they’ll only need to hire about 25 more people on the manufacturing side, thanks to the Palantir-backed digitized production process.
- The company’s supply chain is currently in the US, Europe, and “allied Asian countries,” Mills said.
The facility will be officially opened this morning, at 11:00 ET. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee will both be in attendance.
Big boy: The new drone—the Skelmir S12—being unveiled alongside the production facility is essentially a bigger, badder version of Vatn’s existing torpedo drone, the Skelmir S6. The S12:
- Boasts a 12.75 in diameter (to the S6’s 6 in) and can be anywhere from nine to 25 feet long.
- Can carry a payload of up to 250 pounds.
- Can travel over 30 knots (34.5 mph).
- Has a range of over 200 nautical miles.
- Is built using a modular design—the core of the S12 contains a lot of the same parts as the S6, plus a higher-voltage system that makes the drone go much faster.
The S12 is also designed to be cheap. Mills told Tectonic that the UAV is 7-8X cheaper than the leading torpedoes on the market, and about 10X cheaper than leading AUVs, but declined to give an exact unit price.
All the rage: Mills said that the case for building a bigger, faster, cheaper AUV right now is an easy one to make. He pointed to the $200M+ allocated for lightweight torpedoes in the defense reconciliation bill.
“There’s a clear market demand here, from the US and other countries,” he said, “We can’t build our torpedoes fast enough. We can’t build AUVs fast enough.”
The drone is already being tested by the DoD, Mills said, and they have massive interest from customers abroad. The company expects orders to skyrocket in 2026.
On the horizon: You, like us, might hear all this and think: “Vatn is going to need some serious cash, and soon.” And you wouldn’t be wrong. Mills told Tectonic that his company plans to go out for a Series A “in the near future.”