Blue Ops continues to advance USV offerings

The Blue Ops Variant 7 USV equipped with the Allen Control Systems Bullfrog autonomous weapon station mounting an M240G machine gun forward during a demonstration on Lake Okeechobee in south Florida on 27 February 2026. (Allen Control Systems)

Blue Ops, a division of Red Cat Holdings, is evolving its Variant family of unmanned surface vessels (USVs), with initial production underway at its factory in Valdosta, Georgia, Barry Hinckley, president of Blue Ops, told Janes on 22 April at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space exhibition in National Harbor, Maryland.

The Georgia facility is building a couple 7.8-m (26-ft) Variant 7 (V7) USVs a week, while Hodgdon Shipbuilding in Maine also builds a couple a month, he said. Blue Ops partnered with Hodgdon Shipbuilding to build the first five prototype V7s and serve as a research and development site, according to a company statement in September 2025.

“We're talking about increasing capacity [in Maine],” Hinckley said, noting that Hodgdon Shipbuilding is “better at high quality, low volume”, while the Valdosta facility performs mass production.

At least 11 hulls had been completed as of 22 April, and production time had been cut from 700 hours to 400 hours, he said.

Modularity

Since the first public demonstration of the V7 during a Red Cat Holdings innovation day in West Palm Beach, Florida, in late February, the boat has been tested in rough weather and responded “better than we thought. [We're] confident in this boat's ability to perform”, Hinckley said, acknowledging that production has begun ahead of contract awards.

The boats are fibreglass and have an estimated lifespan of 15 years of daily ocean operations, which exceeds the navy's five-year requirement, Hinckley said.