As reported by Defence Blog, composites 3D printing company, Haddy (St. Petersburg, Fla., U.S.) announced that it has produced a vessel called the TF-179 Drone Boat using robotic large-format additive manufacturing (LFAM). Haddy released photos of the finished vessel alongside a statement explaining the company’s broader approach to reshaping how maritime hardware gets built:
“The maritime industry is redefining how vessels are designed and manufactured. The TF-179 Drone Boat is part of that evolution. … projects like this demonstrate how digital manufacturing is enabling more agile development cycles, greater design flexibility and a faster path from concept to deployment. As demand grows for specialized maritime platforms, manufacturing methods must evolve alongside them. The ability to rapidly produce, evaluate and refine complex systems is becoming an increasingly important advantage. We’re proud to contribute to the technologies and partnerships helping shape the future of maritime manufacturing.”
Haddy did not disclose which customer commissioned the TF-179 or what mission the vessel is intended to perform. But Defence Blog notes this kind of rapid, robot-built approach to unmanned vessels has become Haddy’s specialty over the past year, as demand for small, expendable maritime drones has surged across the U.S. defense industry.
The article highlights CW’s plant tour of Haddy’s 2,800-square meter facility equipped with eight robotic LFAM systems from CEAD (Delft, Netherlands) and CW’s April 2026 report on Haddy’s previous low-profile unmanned surface vehicle (LPUSV) project with HavocAI Inc. (Providence, R.I., U.S.). For this autonomous semi-submersible vessel developed by HavocAI, Haddy 3D printed the hull using carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP). The result was a functional, testable platform delivered in days, not months, enabling rapid integration, field validation and immediate iteration.
Defence Blog adds that this short timeline would be virtually unheard of using conventional boatbuilding techniques involving molds, hand layup and lengthy curing processes. It reports that Haddy has also formed a manufacturing partnership with Blue Ops, the maritime drone division of the publicly traded defense company Red Cat Holdings, to help double Blue Ops’ production capacity for its own line of uncrewed surface vessels, which the company has been selling to U.S. and allied militaries as smaller, cheaper alternatives to traditional crewed patrol boats.
“Haddy can adjust a vessel’s design digitally and print a new version within days,” the Defence Blog article explains, “rather than retooling an entire physical production line, a flexibility that matters enormously when battlefield requirements are shifting as quickly as they have been in recent naval conflicts from the Black Sea to the Middle East.”
Source | Haddy
