Haddy 3D-Prints the TF-179 Drone Boat, Its Latest Unmanned Surface Vessel

Haddy has produced another uncrewed surface vessel using its large-format robotic additive manufacturing setup. The craft, designated the TF-179 Drone Boat, rolled out of the company's 32,000-square-foot microfactory in St. Petersburg, Florida. The build confirms that Haddy's move into defense maritime hardware is no longer experimental. It is now in production.

The factory runs eight CEAD Flexbot systems, hybrid cells that combine additive and subtractive manufacturing in the same envelope with CNC post-processing built in. Siemens Sinumerik controls the hardware. Seven of the eight bots run on rails, which is the detail that makes hulls possible. The arm travels its track laterally against a vertical bed, so part length is limited only by rail distance. Co-founder Maarten Logtenberg has put 40-meter printed boats within reach of that approach.

A factory, not a project

The TF-179 is not a prototype displayed at a trade show. Haddy did not name the customer, disclose the mission profile, or publish displacement and propulsion specs. That opacity is standard for defense work, but the context around the launch fills in most of the picture. In April, Red Cat Holdings' maritime division Blue Ops signed a strategic partnership with Haddy to install AI-driven robotic production systems inside its Valdosta, Georgia facility. The goal is to double output across Blue Ops' 5-meter and 7-meter USV lines and to tap Haddy's broader microfactory network for surge capacity when orders spike.

Blue Ops president Barry Hinckley told Janes in April that the 3D-printed boat has the potential to be as disruptive as the shift from wooden to fiberglass hulls in the mid-20th century. That is a strong claim. The logic behind it is straightforward. Traditional shipbuilding depends on molds, one per hull variant, with long lead times and fixed production lines. Haddy's approach removes the mold entirely. Design files change, the bot changes what it deposits, and the hull comes off the same line without retooling.

Why the military is paying attention

The Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act now restricts foreign-sourced 3D printing systems for DoD programs. That policy shift makes domestic manufacturing capability a compliance requirement, not a preference. Blue Ops, operating out of Valdosta, builds autonomous maritime platforms for defense and national security customers. HADDY's microfactory model, with distributed nodes that can shift production closer to where vessels deploy, fits that requirement directly.

The partnership also addresses a problem the Navy has been public about. During RIMPAC this summer, the US Navy 3D-printed combat-ready drones at sea, demonstrating that forward-deployed manufacturing is operationally relevant. Haddy's distributed model extends that idea beyond a single ship's fab lab to a network of microfactories that can respond to urgent or large orders without traditional bottlenecks.

What comes next

Haddy is not the only established shipbuilder testing large-format additive for maritime use. Damen Compact Crafts partnered with CEAD to 3D-print an HDPE workboat hull at CEAD's Maritime Application Center in Delft, treating the project explicitly as a technical evaluation of process and structural feasibility. Haddy is past evaluation. It has paying defense customers, a second production facility coming online through Blue Ops, and a demonstrated product line in the water.

The company's bet is that hull production is the bottleneck, not hull design. Print them in quantity, without a mold per variant, close enough to the point of need that shipping does not eat the schedule. The TF-179 is one answer to that bet. There will be more.