Hulk Defense Inc.
We design uncrewed underwater vessels that carry real tonnage, and we publish the engineering record that backs the figures.
Carry the weight.
Most uncrewed underwater vehicles are built around a sensor. The HD-18 is built around a volume — three dry compartments totalling 42.63 m³, carrying 17.0 t, in a hull small enough to move on a low-loader and cheap enough to consider in numbers.
Everything else on the vessel follows from that decision. The deck is flat because a 2.50 m hatch has to land on it. The frames sit on the compartment bulkheads because a frame crossing an opening is a defect. The compartments are pressure-balanced because designing for the emergency case is cheaper than designing the emergency out.
How we work
One engineering model emits every artefact — CAD, drawings, bill of materials, report and this website. Automated checks run on every build and the build fails if any of them fails, so the pack a customer receives is internally consistent by construction rather than by proofreading.
It is a slower way to produce a brochure. It is a considerably faster way to survive a technical evaluation.
Naming
The platform is HD-18 in the market and IS-18 Revision F in the engineering pack. Both designations appear on the data sheet so the two can be reconciled. The rule is HD- plus length overall in whole metres.
At a glance
| Legal name | Hulk Defense Inc. |
| Location | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Focus | Uncrewed underwater vessels |
| Platform | HD-18 |
| Programme | Entering construction |
| Design revision | V10 · model revision F |
| Contact | info@hulkdefense.com |
What we believe
Three positions, and we would rather be argued with than agreed with.
Volume is the scarce thing
Uncrewed underwater vehicles have got very good at carrying sensors and no better at carrying anything else. The interesting constraint at sea is not detection, it is moving mass to a place a manned hull should not go.
Depth is a cost, not a virtue
20 m is a deliberate ceiling. Every metre beyond what the mission needs is paid for in plate, in ballast and in the price of a hull, and most cargo routes do not need it.
Design for the fault
The structure survives the total failure of its most safety-critical system. Designing the emergency case in is cheaper and more honest than designing it out and hoping the control loop never fails.
Where we are
Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Hulk Defense Inc. is part of the Iron Shield Systems group. The HD-18 programme is run as its own line, with its own engineering model, its own release control and its own documentation.
The design work is in-house. The manufacturing is deliberately conventional: 5083-H116 plate, CNC profiling, welded aluminium structure, catalogue subsea hardware and a generating set anyone can service. There is nothing in the bill of materials that needs a facility to be built for it, which is what makes a series realistic rather than aspirational.
Talk to us.
Navies and defence ministries, primes and integrators, coast guard and port security, commercial subsea.