01
Design for production
One architecture across three sizes. Caravel 35 and 55 share major components with Caravel 15.
Founded
1943
Group operates two slipways across western Japan.
Production
Engineered in America. Scaling with allied industry.
Modern defense is limited less by design than by the capacity to build, field, and sustain systems in numbers. We’re building that capacity across the United States and Japan.
The gap
Production is the bottleneck.
Distributed operations need maritime systems in quantities the current industrial base wasn’t built to deliver. No single kind of company is set up to close the gap on its own.
- 01Today’s shipyards are optimized for large, crewed, billion-dollar ships.
- 02Software-first startups can’t scale hull production.
- 03Production and repair far from theater is a bottleneck of its own.
United States · Menlo Park
Engineer & prove.
Where Caravel is designed, built as a prototype, and tested on the water.
- Systems engineering
- Product architecture and integration
- Prototyping and operational testing
- Business development with U.S. and allied customers
Japan · Tokyo + partners
Industrialize & scale.
Where designs are made ready for repeatable production, on an established shipbuilding base.
- Shipbuilding and manufacturing development
- Industrial partnerships and supplier networks
- Manufacturing engineering
- Business development across Japan and the Asia-Pacific
Precedent
During the Korean and Vietnam Wars, Japan’s industrial base helped sustain American forces. Its factories supplied vehicles and equipment, while its ports, maintenance facilities, and logistics networks supported operations across the Pacific.
A future conflict in the Indo-Pacific would pose a different industrial challenge: a potential adversary with more than half of the world’s commercial shipbuilding output, fighting on its own doorstep. Matching it will take that alliance again, at a speed and scale not seen in fifty years.
From one to many
How a Caravel gets built.
01 / 05
02
Prototype & test
Built and tested in Menlo Park. Caravel 15 completed the full autonomous sequence in early 2026.
03
Industrialize
Manufacturing engineering, supplier qualification, and production tooling with partners in Japan.
04
Serial production
Under a signed MOU, Bulwark and Onomichi Dockyard will build the Caravel series in Japan.
05
Sustain near the fight
Production and repair close to where systems operate, spread across a network instead of a single yard.
Partner
Onomichi Dockyard
Founded in 1943, one of Japan’s established shipbuilders, with a build record spanning bulk carriers, tankers, RO/RO vessels, and ferries. Onomichi is also an investor in Bulwark.
Read the announcement
Output
~350,000 GT / year
Approximate annual delivery, per the group.
With Bulwark
Serial-production MOU
Bulwark and Onomichi will build the Caravel series in Japan; a dedicated unmanned-vessel site is in discussion.
Where we are
What’s in place, and what comes next.
Now
- Menlo ParkRapid prototyping and R&D
- TokyoProduction development
- Onomichi DockyardMOU for serial production of the Caravel series
- ProductCommon components across Caravel 15, 35, and 55
Building toward
- Dedicated siteExploring serial production in Japan with Onomichi and partners
- Supply chainIntegrated supplier and manufacturing data across both countries
- Distributed networkProduction and sustainment close to where systems operate
- Beyond CaravelTheater production and MRO for defense tech companies
