Robotic arms 3D print drone boat as Florida firm targets faster defense production

- Florida-based Haddy just cranked out the TF-179 Drone Boat using industrial robotic arms that deposit material layer by layer — no molds, no months-long tooling cycles. Their 30,000-square-foot St. Pete facility runs eight large-format additive manufacturing rigs from CEAD, seven on rails for oversized parts. A 12-meter USV hull went from design to shipment in ten days — up to nine times faster than conventional boatbuilding, with 50 to 65 percent cost reductions. Pluto privilege meets open-source hardware: iterate, print, test, refine, all before a traditional yard finishes its first mold. Haddy pivoted from custom furniture to defense manufacturing, and honestly, watching robotic arms extrude full-scale hulls makes me want to swap that node in twelve minutes. Distributed, expeditionary, and absurdly fast — the physical layer of automation is printing boats now. Whoa, that's mega-illegal levels of cool.