Taiwan's Thunder Tiger demonstrates autonomous USV teaming

Thunder Tiger's SeaShark 800 USV displayed at the TADTE defence exhibition in Taipei in September 2025. (Janes/Akhil Kadidal)

Taiwan's Thunder Tiger has demonstrated autonomous teaming using its SeaShark unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and Shield AI's Hivemind, supporting the island's efforts to expand unmanned maritime capabilities.

During the demonstration, which took place in Pingtung County in southern Taiwan, Thunder Tiger's SeaShark 600 and SeaShark 800 USVs, equipped with Hivemind, executed a co-ordinated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) mission, Shield AI said in late July.

Hivemind used data from onboard radar, cameras, and an automatic identification system (AIS) to generate mission waypoints autonomously, search a designated maritime area, identify a target vessel, and co-ordinate actions between the USVs to escort the vessel from the search zone, Shield AI added.

Taiwan's state-owned Central News Agency (CNA) reported that Hivemind divided the search area into two sectors and assigned a USV to each. Once a USV detected a vessel of interest, it began tracking and pursuing it and shared the information with the second USV, which intercepted the target vessel via an optimised route. The two USVs then jointly escorted the target outside the search area, CNA added.

CNA said the demonstration was observed by officials from the Ministry of National Defense's (MND's) National Chung-Shan Institute for Science and Technology (NCSIST), which leads Taiwan's military research and development activities. Officials from the Coast Guard Administration also attended the demonstration.

The event marked Hivemind's first multi-asset autonomous teaming demonstration. Nathan Michael, Shield AI's chief technology officer, said the company would continue collaborating with Thunder Tiger to expand autonomous maritime teaming capabilities for ISR missions.