Largest US Shipbuilder Expects More Profits From Drones, AI Than Surface Ships, Soon
The United States’ largest shipbuilder, HII (formerly Huntington Ingalls Industries), expects a major profit shift from traditional shipbuilding to their non-shipbuilding Mission Technologies division; with autonomous technologies leading the charge. As the US Department of Defense shifts its focus from counterinsurgency to the threat of China, the importance of autonomous systems and uncrewed vehicles will only increase.
HII has already delivered, ‘...more than 500 unmanned submarines, with roughly 30 percent going to U.S. allies in the Pacific and elsewhere.’ Moreover, HII has acquired some important companies in the artificial intelligence and emerging technology space such as uncrewed underwater vehicle maker Hydroid in 2020, and Alion Science & Technology in 2021.