About

About Caravel 35

Caravel 35 is a 35-foot autonomous landing craft intended to move cargo between ships, staging areas and austere shorelines. Its shallow-draft hull can beach itself, while hybrid propulsion and onboard navigation support longer movements without continuous crew control. The vessel uses sensor fusion and AI-assisted navigation for operation when GPS is unreliable, and its cargo area accepts modular loads including standard military containers and unmanned vehicles.

The mission workflow removes dependence on a port or shore handling team. Operators assign the route and cargo task, the craft approaches and beaches, and self-loading or unloading mechanisms transfer the payload before the vessel withdraws for another mission. Bulwark developed the design from a smaller 15-foot demonstrator, scaling the concept toward contested logistics where several inexpensive craft can distribute supplies without exposing a crewed landing vessel at the shoreline.

Capabilities

Source-backed capabilities

Workflows: Autonomous surface navigation, maritime payload carriage, inspection, survey and mission support.
Operating environments: Ports, waterways, maritime security zones, survey areas and autonomous surface missions.
Target markets: Maritime operators, security teams and field users needing compact autonomous surface capability.
Deployment model: Autonomous surface vessel platform.
Cargo delivery
Claimed - Bulwark positions Caravel 35 for contested littoral logistics, sea-to-shore resupply and beach delivery of containerized payloads and vehicles.
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Autonomous surface transit
Claimed - Bulwark positions Caravel 35 for contested littoral logistics, sea-to-shore resupply and beach delivery of containerized payloads and vehicles.
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Timeline

Bulwark and Onomichi agree Caravel serial-production partnership
2026-09-09 - Partnership - The companies plan to build Caravel vessels through Onomichi’s existing Japanese shipbuilding capacity. They are discussing a dedicated production site for unmanned vessels. The arrangement covers the Caravel series, including the 15-foot prototype and planned 35-foot and 55-foot variants.
Source
Bulwark Dynamics raises $6.8M seed round
2026-09-09 - Funding - SBI US Gateway Fund, Archetype Ventures, Nēnē Ventures and Onomichi Dockyard are named investors. Proceeds support Caravel development and production, manufacturing capacity and testing in operationally representative environments. Bulwark is expanding engineering, test-operations and business-development hiring across the United States and Japan.
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Bulwark Dynamics announces Caravel 35 autonomous landing craft for contested littoral logistics
2026-04-09 - Product Launch - Bulwark Dynamics announced Caravel 35, a 35-foot autonomous landing craft built for contested littoral logistics and sea-to-shore resupply missions. The company positioned Caravel 35 as a mission-relevant scale-up from its earlier 15-foot Caravel demonstration, with support for modular containerized payloads up to a full 20-foot ISO container as well as vehicles and UGVs. Bulwark said the craft's ultra-shallow six-inch draft and beach-landing design are intended to reach austere shorelines inaccessible to most conventional vessels.
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Context

Market context

Caravel 35 is Bulwark Dynamics' compact autonomous surface vessel for maritime missions and payload-flexible operations.

Target environment: Ports, waterways, maritime security zones, survey areas and autonomous surface missions.
Workflow context: Autonomous surface navigation, maritime payload carriage, inspection, survey and mission support.
Customer context: Maritime operators, security teams and field users needing compact autonomous surface capability.
Deployment model: Autonomous surface vessel platform.
Commercial maturity: Emerging maritime product surface.
Adoption constraints: Adoption depends on endurance, payload fit, autonomy reliability, water conditions and regulation.
Market position: Compact ASV platform for maritime operations where autonomy and payload flexibility matter.
Adjacent products: Caravel line, unmanned surface vessels, maritime inspection robots