NEW BEDFORD — The future of the U.S. Navy is taking shape in New Bedford — at Fish Island, to be exact — where the technology that will run the only unmanned, autonomous vessel in its class is being developed by a company called Blue Water Autonomy .

On Friday, Oct. 31, city and state officials joined Blue Water Autonomy at Fish Island in New Bedford, where the company began work with its autonomous test vessel, or "ATV" in early 2025 — a simple barge which serves as a scaled-down vessel upon which all the technology that will one day power a much larger ship currently being built elsewhere, Blue Water Autonomy co-founder and CEO Rylan Hamilton said.

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