A California-based autonomous vessel company plans to build its Caravel landing craft in Japan after raising $6.8 million in seed funding to expand development and production.
Menlo Park-based Bulwark Dynamics has signed a memorandum of understanding with Onomichi Dockyard establishing a partnership for serial production of the company’s autonomous landing craft.
The companies plan to build the Caravel series at Onomichi’s existing facilities in Japan and are also discussing a dedicated production site for unmanned vessels.
Onomichi Dockyard was among the investors in Bulwark’s seed round, along with SBI US Gateway Fund LP, Archetype Ventures, and Nēnē Ventures. Bulwark said the funding will support vessel development and production, manufacturing capacity, and additional testing.
Bulwark is developing the Caravel as an unmanned surface vessel for moving cargo to expeditionary forces without relying on ports, piers, or shoreside cranes. The vessel is designed to transit autonomously, beach itself, offload cargo, and retract from shore, including in GPS-denied environments.
The company said it demonstrated the full sequence earlier this year with a 15' Caravel prototype, completing an unmanned transit, beach landing, cargo offload, and departure without human intervention.
Along with the 15' version, Bulwark is developing 35' and 55' Caravel variants. The larger vessels are being designed to carry one and two twenty-foot equivalent units of containerized cargo, respectively.
Bulwark said the variants will share major components to simplify production. The company is targeting military logistics missions for U.S. and allied forces across the Indo-Pacific, while also identifying potential civilian uses such as disaster relief in areas without developed port infrastructure.
“In a contested environment, the attributes that make a logistics platform efficient are the same ones that make it a target,” said Nhat Lieu, co-founder and CEO of Bulwark Dynamics.
Onomichi Dockyard was founded in 1943 and has built bulk carriers, tankers, ro-ro vessels, and ferries. The company operates shipbuilding facilities in western Japan and is part of a group that also includes Saiki Heavy Industries.
Bulwark, founded in 2025, operates from Menlo Park and Tokyo. The company said the new funding will also support hiring in engineering, test operations, and business development in the U.S. and Japan.
