"This partnership reflects Kraken’s commitment to supporting global maritime challenges with hardened operational capabilities at a critical point in history," Kraken CEO Mal Crease said in a company press release.
Anduril and Kraken: the headline deal
Anduril and UK-based Kraken Technology Group announced a partnership to produce small unmanned surface vessels (USVs) for the U.S. Navy. Under the agreement, Anduril “will integrate payloads and Lattice autonomy software” onto Kraken’s “mass-producible USVs,” the companies said. The collaboration ties Kraken’s platform designs and production lines to Anduril’s autonomy stack and domestic sustainment responsibilities.
K5 KRAKEN and K7 SABRE platforms
The announcement specifies two platforms: the K5 KRAKEN and the K7 SABRE. According to the companies, those platforms will be able to carry “1,000 pound-plus payloads and be quick to manufacture.” Anduril said it will make the K5 and K7 platforms while also sustaining and supporting the fleet domestically. Kraken will continue its own parallel production lines and will “create a new hull design variant for operator requirements,” the statement adds.
What Anduril brings: Lattice autonomy and payload integration
Anduril’s role in the partnership is framed around software and mission systems. The company will integrate its Lattice autonomy software and operator payloads onto Kraken-built hulls. Cory Emmons, general manager of surface dominance at Anduril, described the move as expanding Anduril’s portfolio: “This partnership expands Anduril’s family of autonomous surface offerings with small boats carrying mission payloads, adding a complementary capability to larger ASVs and the legacy fleet,” he said in Kraken’s press release.
U.S. Navy context: Modular Attack Surface Craft cancellation and a new medium USV marketplace
The partnership comes as the U.S. Navy is reassessing its unmanned surface programs. In March, the service announced it would be cancelling development of the Modular Attack Surface Craft program and instead “would be opening a new medium USV marketplace,” the companies’ statement noted. The timing of the Anduril–Kraken tie-up dovetails with that change in procurement posture and with public projections about the future force composition: at the Surface Naval Assocaition symposium in January, Rear Adm. Christopher Alexander said he expects nearly half of the surface force to be unmanned by 2045, stating, “Looking at some projections moving out over the future, by 2045 we expect about 45 percent of the surface force to be unmanned systems.”
What this means for the U.S. Navy, Anduril, and Kraken
- The U.S. Navy: The partnership delivers additional small-boat options built to be “quick to manufacture” and capable of carrying 1,000‑plus pound payloads at a moment when the Navy has shifted away from the Modular Attack Surface Craft program and is opening a new medium USV marketplace.
- Anduril: The company will integrate Lattice autonomy and payloads onto Kraken hulls, expand its autonomous surface offerings to include smaller boats, and take on domestic sustainment and support responsibilities for the resulting fleet.
- Kraken Technology Group: Kraken will continue its parallel production lines, deliver “low-cost, scalable and modular systems” as promised by CEO Mal Crease, and develop a new hull variant to meet operator requirements while supplying platforms to Anduril for integration.
The announcement ties platform production, autonomy software, and sustainment plans together at a moment of shifting Navy procurement. It commits both companies to deliver platforms described as mass-producible and quick to field, with sufficient payload capacity to carry mission systems weighing over 1,000 pounds. Whether that combination of industrial scaling, autonomy integration, and the Navy’s changing purchasing approach will accelerate fielding timelines or alter procurement choices in the new medium USV marketplace is the immediate operational question left by the deal; the companies say they will supply the hulls, software and sustainment to do so.
Original story: https://breakingdefense.com/2026/04/anduril-announces-partnership-with-kraken-for-small-usvs/
