Bulwark Dynamics, a defense technology startup developing autonomous landing craft for military resupply, is building vessels designed to carry cargo directly onto unimproved shorelines. The company was founded in 2025 and is based in Menlo Park, California. Its focus is military logistics. Co founder and CEO Nhat Lieu leads the company alongside co founders Yuta Shiina and Isaac Anderson.
The funding arrives as the United States puts more attention on maritime production and cooperation with allied shipbuilders. The White House’s February 2026 America’s Maritime Action Plan calls for expanding maritime industrial capacity, strengthening shipyards and supply chains, and working with allied shipbuilders to increase production. Shipbuilding capacity is part of that effort.
Bulwark has raised $6.8 million in seed funding from SBI US Gateway Fund LP, Archetype Ventures, Nēnē Ventures, and Onomichi Dockyard. The money will now support production. Bulwark plans to spend the capital on development and production of its Caravel vessels, manufacturing capacity, and testing in conditions designed to reflect real operations.
Bulwark is focused on sustaining United States and allied forces operating across the Indo Pacific littorals. The company is developing vessels that can deliver supplies to places where forces cannot depend on established port infrastructure. That changes how cargo reaches shore. Its Caravel system is intended to complete the final part of a resupply mission without requiring a port, pier, or crane.
Caravel is an unmanned surface vessel, meaning it can travel on water without a crew on board. The vessel can move to shore, land on a beach, unload its cargo, and return to the water autonomously. It can also operate without GPS. According to Bulwark, the system was designed specifically for this type of mission rather than being adapted from an existing vessel.
“In a contested environment, the attributes that make a logistics platform efficient are the same ones that make it a target: large, crewed, concentrated, and tied to a handful of fixed nodes. Sustainment has to survive to matter. Caravel takes people off the most exposed leg of the run and spreads the delivery across many low-cost hulls, so losing one is a bad day rather than the end of the resupply.” — Nhat Lieu, Co founder and CEO, Bulwark Dynamics
The same capability could also be used outside the military. Bulwark identifies disaster relief as one possible civil application, particularly when cargo needs to reach a shoreline without access to a port. The basic task stays the same. Supplies still need to move from water to land even when normal infrastructure is unavailable.
The new capital will help Bulwark move from prototype development toward production. The company plans to continue developing and validating production vessels while using lessons from operational testing to improve later versions. Testing remains part of that process. The funding will also support the manufacturing capacity needed to produce Caravel vessels in larger numbers.
Japan is central to those plans. Bulwark has signed a memorandum of understanding with Onomichi Dockyard covering serial production of the Caravel series, and the two companies intend to build the vessels in Japan. They are also discussing another facility. In addition to using Onomichi’s existing shipyard, the companies are considering a site dedicated specifically to serial production of unmanned vessels.
Bulwark is expanding hiring in engineering, test operations, and business development across its United States and Japan locations. It is also developing larger Caravel models alongside the existing 15 foot version. Two larger variants are in development. The 35 foot model is designed to carry one twenty foot equivalent unit of containerized cargo, while the 55 foot version is sized for two, with the vessels sharing major components to simplify production.
Bulwark Dynamics was founded in the United States in 2025 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, with additional operations in Tokyo. Its leadership includes Lieu as CEO, Yuta Shiina as co founder and Chief Technical Officer, and Isaac Anderson as co founder and Lead Engineer. The company operates in both countries.
Caravel is the company’s main product. The unmanned vessel is designed for beach resupply and can carry out transit, beaching, cargo delivery, and withdrawal without a crew controlling each stage. Bulwark designed it for this mission. The company also says the vessel was developed with production costs in mind so that multiple units can be deployed.
In early 2026, Bulwark demonstrated the complete mission sequence using a Caravel 15 prototype. The vessel completed unmanned transit, beaching, cargo offload, and retraction from the beach without human intervention at any point. The demonstration covered every main stage. Larger 35 foot and 55 foot versions are now under development.
“Building unmanned systems at scale inside the theater, on the industrial base and supply chains an ally already has, does two things at once. It solves a problem the people running these missions have today, and it puts decades of allied know-how to work on American reindustrialization.” — Nhat Lieu, Co founder and CEO, Bulwark Dynamics
Onomichi Dockyard gives Bulwark an established shipbuilding partner in Japan. Founded in 1943, the company has built bulk carriers, tankers, roll on roll off vessels, and ferries. Its operations extend across western Japan. According to Bulwark, the group operates two slipways and delivers about 350,000 gross tons annually.
The seed round includes SBI US Gateway Fund LP, Archetype Ventures, Nēnē Ventures, and Onomichi Dockyard. SBI US Gateway Fund LP targets early stage companies in North America, while Archetype Ventures focuses on seed and early stage B2B technology companies. Nēnē Ventures also invests at an early stage. Its focus includes defense technologies for the Indo Pacific, while Onomichi Dockyard is participating as both an investor and Bulwark’s manufacturing partner.
Bulwark had previously announced a pre seed round in September 2025 to support early prototype development and field testing.
