Mick Handsworth

Lawyer by day, ocean tech obsessive by night. Writing about autonomous systems and regenerative materials.

DEEP DIVE: Own the Factory or Own the Sonar

Sep 14, 2026

Saronic is building the factory. Kraken is building the network. Both bet a different answer to the same question: how do you get from tens of hulls to hundreds without a shipbuilding base sized for either? Neither model is proven at volume, and the US Navy is buying from both.

Nothing Grows on a Crewed Hull for Long

Sep 7, 2026

A hull on station for weeks grows its own reef. The posted endurance figures pretend it does not, while the rulebook for scraping it off was written for ships that come home.

You Can't 3D Print a Program of Record

Aug 31, 2026

Printing a hull is becoming routine. Turning it into something a navy can actually buy is a different problem, and nobody has solved it.

Where Is the Captain? Eight Weeks Inside the Voluntary Phase

Aug 24, 2026

The MASS Code went live on 1 July. Nobody's had to answer the hard question yet, and there's a specific reason why.

Own the Stack

Aug 17, 2026

In one month, five buyers moved to own the entire undersea stack. Their rivals spent the same month proving you don't have to.

INTEL DROP: Suing the Navy. Funded by the Navy.

Aug 13, 2026

A $40 million ocean-survey IDIQ. Both plaintiffs already hold a seat.

The Credit Sells Before the Carbon Settles

Aug 10, 2026

Kelp carbon has a measurement problem the buyers already priced in. Here is where the money actually went.

Australia Wants to Sell. Washington Holds the Licence.

Aug 3, 2026

Canberra's 2026 National Defence Strategy names Ghost Shark and Ghost Bat as export winners. The ITAR fine print hands Washington a veto over every sale outside AUKUS.

Five Eyes, One Fleet: The Industrial Access Problem Nobody Is Asking About

Jul 27, 2026

The US Navy opened the biggest unmanned shipbuilding competition in its history. An allied company can win a place in it. First it has to become American.

What You Can't Buy With an OTA

Jul 20, 2026

The Golden Fleet's money, contracts and hulls all arrived early. The four things that matter don't have a contract vehicle.

Nuclear Power Just Went Mobile. The US Navy Got There First.

Jul 13, 2026

A containerised microreactor for future use in a disaster relief vessel reached criticality this week, while the USS Gerald R. Ford prepares to shortly power a naval base from its own reactors.

The Navy Has the Money. It Doesn't Have the Org Chart.

Jul 6, 2026

A new GAO report on robotic systems reads like a management case study. Ghost Shark is the receipt that makes it personal.

Good Science, No Contract

Jun 29, 2026

Marine biomaterials. SBTi Scope 3 pressure. A new Pentagon biobased product directive. Three things in the same room that haven't met yet.

What's actually in the tank? The autonomous vessel fuel race

Jun 22, 2026

Four pathways are racing to solve it. Only one is already proven on long-endurance autonomous missions.

55 Hulls, No Operating Model. Who Runs the Fleet?

Jun 15, 2026

The autonomous vessel industry solved navigation. The operations problem is still open.

Canberra has accepted a mine warfare risk. Here’s what that actually means.

Jun 8, 2026

Two minehunters left, no funded replacement, and a threat environment that didn't get the memo.

Eight Days, No One Aboard: What Autonomous Endurance Means for the Inspection Economy

May 25, 2026

The technology barrier just fell. The procurement barrier hasn't.

AUKUS at the Funding Line: What the Numbers Actually Say

May 18, 2026

Canberra is spending. Washington is appropriating and London is writing reports about why it should do more.

Voluntary Markets, Defense Budgets: What Running Tide's Collapse Tells Us

May 11, 2026

Running Tide raised $50 million, delivered on every contract, and closed anyway. The technology wasn't the problem.

The Navy Changed the Rules. Industry Showed Up.

May 4, 2026

Five platforms. One pattern. What the MUSV marketplace actually proved.

Saronic Just Planted a Flag in the Taiwan Strait

Apr 29, 2026

Dino Mavrookas flew to Taipei. Here is what the MOU with NCSIST actually means.

The Whole Stack

Apr 27, 2026

China's dual-use ocean tech strategy isn't a secret. It's hiding in plain sight.

Anduril x Kraken Technology Group

Apr 24, 2026

Scale is the strategy. Here's who just proved it.

Quantum Navigation: The Unsexy Enabler

Apr 20, 2026

GPS is being spoofed at scale. Autonomous vessels have no one aboard to notice. An Adelaide company just put a critical subsystem of the solution into orbit.

Norway's Autonomous Vessel Playbook: What AUKUS Nations Should Copy

Apr 13, 2026

The technology works. The statutes don't. How Norway built what AUKUS hasn't.