Anduril Industries and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries are partnering to design and produce a new class of dual-use Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASV) that combines HD Hyundai’s legacy in shipbuilding with Anduril’s speed-to-market, software-defined autonomy and mission systems integration expertise. Together, the companies are developing a modular family of surface vessels for commercial and defense use, including a variant designed to meet the U.S. Navy’s needs under its Modular Attack Surface Craft (MASC) program.
Surface Dominance Matters
Control of the surface domain remains indispensable for maritime power. China is outbuilding the American fleet at a rate of three to one and using its coast guard and maritime militia to challenge freedom of navigation across expanding areas in the Pacific. Russia continues to test Western access in the Black Sea and Arctic. The economics of defending commercial shipping from drones using exquisite military assets is not sustainable. To preserve maritime security, the United States must regain the ability to build, field, and modernize ships quickly.
The Navy’s MASC program represents that shift. MASC is designed to deliver a distributed, autonomous, hybrid fleet, built to operate and survive in contested waters. Traditional, manned warships cannot meet that demand alone. The Navy needs autonomous, modular vessels that can be produced at speed, deployed in volume, and upgraded continuously with iterative engineering, software updates, and new mission payloads to augment the manned fleet.
