A month after announcing a collaboration on developing an unmanned surface vessel (USV), South Korean shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HD HHI) and American software company Palantir Technologies unveiled their Tenebris medium USV concept.
Tenebris, translating to darkness in Latin, comes amid a flurry of concepts by industry to meet the demands set forth by emerging programs and initiatives in the U.S. for these new unmanned systems. Naval News had the opportunity to talk to HD HHI and Palantir representatives to learn about this new system last week at the AI Expo for National Competitiveness in Washington, D.C.
“I would like to introduce our USV TENEBRIS, an innovative and high-performance Unmanned Surface Vessel that incorporates cutting-edge Al technologies. This next-generation USV is being developed through a groundbreaking collaboration between HD Hyundai, one of the world’s leading shipyards, and Palantir, a global leader in defense software, and Al. We aim to complete the development by 2026 and we are currently undergoing a concept design stage,” Brandon Yoon, an HD HHI representative told Naval News in an interview.
Coming in at a length of 17 meters and a weight of 14 tons, the Korean-American USV concept aims to operate in up to sea state six at a speed of 50 knots with an operational range of at least 1000 nautical miles. HD HHI also highlighted the “AI Bridge,” a dome that houses the sensors and software for the operation of Tenebris.
The concept model on the show floor had a remote control weapons system and eight launching tubes for loitering munitions. Tenebris’ modular design concept also plans to support a variety of missions, including mine hunting and electronic warfare, and support payloads of up to two tons. “We will maximize productivity and flexibly and rapidly respond to the Navy’s requirements,” Yoon told Naval News.
While HD HHI is responsible for the USV’s design and systems integration, Palantir takes care of the artificial intelligence and software aspects. According to Yoon, these systems from Palantir that will be leveraged for Tenebris have “already been proven on the battlefield for most mission-critical decision-making.”
Various autonomous aspects of Tenebris’ operation, including mission planning, navigation, fleet management, and unmanned maritime autonomy architecture, were highlighted to Naval News during the interview. Both companies are drawing on previous experience and existing systems to achieve these capabilities on Tenebris. For example, the USV’s autonomous navigation is being leveraged by Avikus, a startup created by HD HHI in 2020.
“Our USV TENEBRIS will be developed as a truly Al-enabled system that automates or accelerates the entire mission cycle from departure to voyage, mission planning, maintenance, and return to base,” Yoon concluded.
On the Palantir side, Robert Morrissey explained the company’s relationship with HD HHI and their role in developing Tenebris.
“Hyundai is a long-time commercial partner of Palantir and we are excited to be working with them as one the first partnerships in the maritime unmanned surface vessel space that we’re undertaking,” said Morrissey.
Emphasizing their role in software and AI integration, Morrissey stated that Palantir views this aspect as “being key to the U.S. Navy achieving its goals both on the autonomy side, on the target recognition side, and on the hardware side.”
While the intended customer for Tenebris could not be commented on by either HD HHI or Palantir, Morrissey did tell Naval News that Palantir has had “early conversations with the U.S. Navy” to develop the Tenebris concept to meet their “interoperability and overall capability standpoint.”
When asked what makes their joint project different from other USV concepts coming into the market, Palantir highlighted that their software capabilities will give them an edge.
“I think our view is that software is going to be a key aspect of the Navy having an open, interoperable C2 [Command and Control] capability across Tenebris, as well as all the other capabilities that will be acquired through things like Replicator and PRIME. We’re very excited to work with DIU [Defense Innovation Unit] and others as they figure out what that will look like from a C2 perspective”
HD HHI and Palantir plan to get the Tenebris concept fully developed by 2026. The first version, as described by the two’s previous announcement, will specialize in reconnaissance. Later variants more dedicated to combat roles are planned to follow.
