Red Cat Plans to Make 3D-Printed Drone Boats for On-Demand Delivery
Red Cat, the drone company bringing Ukraine's famous unmanned boat designs to the U.S. market, has announced a partnership to use large-scale robotic 3D printing during manufacturing. The solution will double the manufacturing capacity of Red Cat's maritime division, Blue Ops.
The firm is focusing its initial efforts on Ukraine's seven-meter drone boat design, with five different configurations for combat or surveillance. The best-known use case of the platform is its capability as a long-range remote-controlled bomb boat, but Blue Ops is also interested in delivering gun-mount, anti-aircraft and UAV-carrying variants - concepts all trialed with success in the Black Sea. With a low center of gravity and a deep-V hull, the design is more capable in higher sea states than an equivalent manned vessel, according to Blue Ops CEO Barry Hinckley.
Going forward, Blue Ops will be working with 3D printing specialist Haddy, which applies AI and robotics to the task of manufacturing large objects in series - not just for prototype designs. The St. Petersburg company is a Siemens- and CEAD Flexbot-equipped printing vendor with a background in printing furniture, architectural elements, casting molds and other items. It launched in 2022, and after a 2025 expansion, it now has one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world. Haddy has previously 3D-printed a semisubmersible prototype hull for a competing U.S. drone-boat company; it says that the 40-foot-long print took nine days.
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In its partnership with Blue Ops, Haddy will support the construction of a new, large format 3D-printing shop at Blue Ops’ own manufacturing plant. The idea is to manufacture hulls on demand to meet customer requirements for five- and seven-meter drones. Blue Ops will also be able to order more hulls from Haddy's own shops if more capacity is needed.
"This partnership advances our ability to iterate at the speed of modern conflict," said Barry Hinckley, president of Blue Ops. "This fundamentally changes how quickly we can move from concept to deployment and gives us the ability to meet demand at scale in ways the industry hasn’t seen before."