Providence – October 29, 2026 -- U.S. defense software company Havoc and CSBC Corporation, Taiwan, the island's largest shipbuilder, will hold a joint press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 10:30 a.m. Taiwan time at MATURE Taiwan in Tainan, as they advance licensed co-production of autonomous surface vessels (ASVs).
Joint press conference and demonstrations are set for booth M501
Havoc CEO and Co-Founder Paul Lwin and CSBC President Kun-Tsung Tsai will speak at the CSBC booth (M501). The session starts at 9:30 p.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 2. Havoc will also run virtual demonstrations of its collaborative autonomy software during the event. Times and locations for those demonstrations have not yet been released.
CSBC chose Havoc after a six-month review of about a dozen firms
The two companies announced their partnership in September. It pairs CSBC's shipbuilding, production and lifecycle support with Havoc's software, integrated onto CSBC-built platforms that a Taiwanese workforce produces and sustains in Taiwan.
The Wall Street Journal reported that CSBC spent more than six months evaluating roughly a dozen U.S. and European firms before selecting Havoc for Taiwan's navy drone-boat effort. The evaluation included at-sea demonstrations and visits to the United States. The Journal described a secure supply chain that avoids China and can serve both Taiwan and the Pentagon.
Havoc and CSBC say the model is built on American autonomy software, Taiwan-built platforms, a Taiwanese workforce and a supply chain free of Chinese components. They intend it to be repeatable with other Indo-Pacific partners that want to build autonomous maritime capability with U.S. technology and their own industrial base.
Section 1266 of the FY2026 NDAA directs U.S.-Taiwan co-production work
Section 1266 of the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act directs the Department of Defense to work with Taiwan on a joint program for uncrewed and counter-uncrewed systems, explicitly including co-development and co-production. The companies say the partnership also matches Taiwan's Self-Reliant Defense policy, which calls for autonomous platforms that can be mass produced, maintained and upgraded at home.
Lwin said the event is a chance to show "what that policy looks like when it moves off the page and onto the water." Tsai said the partnership aims to strengthen Taiwan's domestic production capabilities, build a resilient supply chain and accelerate practical use of autonomous maritime systems.