The Drone Ultimatum Shipbuilding, USVs, and the Economics of Naval Autonomy | Austin Gray
Austin Gray, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Blue Water Autonomy, returns to the show to break down what it actually takes to build large unmanned ships that can operate for months without touch maintenance.
We get into why Navy shipbuilding cycles keep drifting into multi-year design spirals, and how unmanned platforms change the math on payload, endurance, and scale.
Austin walks through the USV market landscape, including the split between “real ships” vs smaller craft, and why peace-time TAM and price-times-quantity matters for defense startups.
We also cover the Navy’s acquisition reorg and what it means for autonomy buyers on the inside. The conversation closes on carrier strike group integration, loyal wingman concepts for destroyers, and why missile capacity and sustainment are the real constraints.
Links to the show:
YouTube
Spotify
Substack
Apple Podcasts
Instagram
X (Twitter)
LinkedIn
Follow Steve:
LinkedIn