“I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” Work said. “I’m on a ship that looks like a Klingon bird of prey. It’s haze gray. If you look up front at the pilot house, you’ll notice big bolts. You can take that pilot house off and this ship can operate autonomously.”

Littlefield projects construction costs for the ship between $22 million and $23 million dollars, with the ultimate goal of selling ships in the Sea Hunter series at $20 million a copy.

“Not cheap, but not as expensive as a manned warship,” said Littlefield.