Red Cat Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: RCAT) announced that its maritime division Blue Ops has entered full-rate production of the Variant 7 uncrewed surface vessel. The platform is designed, built and assembled in the United States for defense missions.

The Variant 7 is powered by a Steyr engine and incorporates domestic autonomy, command-and-control, communications and mission systems. Blue Ops prioritized U.S.-made and NDAA-compliant components across navigation, control, marine hardware and perception systems during development.

"Blue Ops is moving Variant 7 into full-rate production because the mission demand is here now," said Barry Hinckley, President of Blue Ops. The platform supports missions including intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, force protection, harbor and coastal security, contested logistics and payload-adaptable operations.

The vessel is designed in Maine and manufactured in Maine and Valdosta, Georgia, with research, development and testing conducted in West Palm Beach, Florida. Blue Ops' prototype work was supported by Hodgdon Shipbuilding and reflects the Hinckley Yacht family's boatbuilding background.

The V7 is built using Modular Open Systems Architecture principles, allowing customers to configure payloads, sensors, communications and mission systems based on operational requirements. The platform integrates with technology partners including Allen Control Systems, Quaze, Kymeta and HADDY.

Red Cat's acquisition of Apium Swarm Robotics, a California-based developer of distributed control systems for autonomous swarming drones and uncrewed surface vessels, supports the autonomy development. Apium will continue developing multi-agent autonomy architecture for integration with the V7 and Red Cat's systems.

The production launch adds a maritime platform to Red Cat's existing drone and robotic solutions for defense and national security applications.