NATIONAL HARBOR, MD -- Leidos and autonomy start-up HavocAI have partnered up to compete for the Navy's new medium unmanned surface vessel requirement, according to company executives, who are highlighting their collaborative autonomy technology and mission-enabling capabilities rather than a specific MUSV platform.

“I don't think the challenge is the platform itself," Havoc Co-founder and CEO Paul Lwin told Inside Defense ahead of the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference. "It's how do you turn that platform into an autonomous weapon system, and how do you produce them at scale? That is the next step we're taking.”

The Navy's Robotic and Autonomous Systems program office (PAE RAS) launched the MUSV solicitation last month, seeking companies with mature, production-ready systems to participate in on-water testing within fiscal year 2026 and deliver initial production vessels in FY-27.

The companies submitted their joint MUSV bid last week, according to Steve Boraz, Leidos vice president for maritime growth and strategy, who pointed to existing Leidos USVs in use by the Navy including Sea Hunter and Seahawk.

The companies are also preparing to showcase collaborative autonomy technology during their own “operational evaluation” scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026, the executives said.

During this event, Leidos and Havoc plan to operate USVs and unmanned aerial vehicles on both the West Coast and the Gulf of Mexico under a single autonomy system to demonstrate collaborative autonomous operations at scale.

“We're seeing today many competitors talking about collaborative autonomy, but they're talking about just sending those messages to the ship, and you're usually going to need a person in the loop to execute that,” Boraz said. “But if you're talking about delivering that capability into the warfighting environment, you need higher-level thinking and higher-level execution, and that's what we have already started on and what we're going to help deliver and show in the fourth quarter this year.”