HAVELSAN has entered a new phase in its maritime cooperation in Italy with VN Maritime Technologies and Piloda Defence, the defense unit of Piloda Shipyard. According to the companies’ announcement, the partnership unveiled in Naples in March has now moved into production, with platforms to be built at Piloda and VN Maritime facilities and operations to be carried out in Naples, Brindisi, and Torre Annunziata.

The agreement represents the next stage of an already established industrial partnership. In 2025, Piloda Shipyard and VN Maritime launched joint production of 40 fifteen-meter vessels for the Italian Coast Guard under a program worth €159.2 million. With the new arrangement, that cooperation has been expanded to include hybrid and unmanned surface platforms, with the Guardia di Finanza and other Italian public security institutions identified as potential end users.

At the center of the agreement is a hybrid platform concept that can operate in manned, unmanned, or mixed mode without requiring structural modification. This is intended to give the same platform flexibility across a broad mission set, including autonomous surveillance, coordinated swarm missions, patrol, search and rescue, transport, and boarding or intervention tasks at sea. The hybrid approach also addresses a regulatory challenge, since international rules for fully autonomous vessels are still not fully settled, allowing Italian institutions to deploy personnel when required under current conditions. A working prototype had already been presented and tested for institutional delegations at Seafuture 2025 in La Spezia.

The technical side of the cooperation is built around a division of labor between the three companies. Piloda Defence will act as the production hub and system integrator in Italy, HAVELSAN will provide advanced technologies such as command and control, autonomous navigation, and sensor fusion, and VN Maritime will contribute platform design and high-performance hull technology adapted to Italian user requirements. Reporting on the deal also notes that the partners are aiming to sign the first purchase order in the first half of 2026.

In broader terms, the partnership shows that HAVELSAN’s role in Europe is moving beyond software support into direct industrial participation in next-generation maritime platforms. If the first order is signed on schedule, the cooperation could become a notable example of Turkish defense technology being integrated into locally produced naval systems for a European market. This final point is an inference based on the announced production model, HAVELSAN’s role, and the stated purchase-order timeline.