A Baltimore firm drives the Navy’s autonomous patrols
Maritime Applied Physics in Baltimore is building the Navy's Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft, scaling production to dozens of unmanned patrol boats per month and showing how private investment can accelerate defense innovation.
BALTIMORE — In late 2025 the U.S. Navy plans to ramp up production of its Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft, or GARC — a 16‑foot unmanned surface vessel designed for reconnaissance and sea‑denial missions. Unlike other Pentagon programs, the GARC effort is driven largely by Maritime Applied Physics Corp., a small Baltimore shipbuilder also known as BlackSea Technologies, which operates a privately funded production line at a World War II‑era shipyard. Rear Adm. Kevin Smith told DefenseScoop that the craft, which is built by Maritime Applied Physics, received more than $160 million in defense spending and is slated to reach a production rate of 32 units per month.
Engineering roots in Baltimore and Maine
Maritime Applied Physics Corp. was founded in 1986 and has remained privately held. The company specializes in advanced marine craft design, motion simulation and control systems, and it maintains engineering and fabrication facilities with bridge cranes, CNC machining, and MIG and TIG welding capabilities in Baltimore and Brunswick, Maine. Its electrical laboratory, outfitted for RF signal processing and control work, supports research and integration on naval projects. The firm has about 50 to 74 employees and annual revenue of $5 million to $7.5 million.
A rescue boat becomes a reconnaissance craft
Maritime Applied Physics acquired the Greenough Advanced Rescue Craft design in 2013 when it bought the intellectual property and patents from Rapid Response Technologies. Company president Mark Rice said the purchase added an innovative hull to the firm’s portfolio of hydrofoils, small-waterplane-area twin hulls and hydrofoil small-waterplane-area ships. The rescue craft had been created by Australian surfboard designer George Greenough and refined for naval special‑operations missions; it is a four‑metre boat that can be airdropped and requires only about sixteen inches of water to operate. An open transom allows rescuers to pull survivors aboard without lifting, while a jet drive and high stability allow the boat to run in breaking surf. The manned version carries four people, reaches forty knots and has seen use in surf rescue and harbor defense.
From proof of concept to high‑risk missions
After acquiring the GARC, Maritime Applied Physics began developing an unmanned version for reconnaissance and sea‑denial missions. Tim O’Connor, director of the company’s advanced technologies group, told National Defense that hundreds of GARCs have already accumulated thousands of hours of testing and operational use and that the small unmanned craft is designed for dull and dangerous tasks where the Navy does not want to risk a human crew. He said systems like GARC can operate in swarms or individually to gather intelligence or deliver effects in places where manned boats cannot be consistently deployed. The company used its GARC and the larger Oceanus VI mission support vessel in Operation Southern Spear experiments led by U.S. Southern Command and 4th Fleet, and the craft was employed during NATO’s BALTOPS 2025 exercise.