Instead of focusing on large platforms like destroyers, Saronic analyzes naval firepower through a startup lens: unit economics. By comparing the cost per Vertical Launch System (VLS) missile tube, they show how autonomous ships can deliver more firepower, faster, for less money.

Autonomy enables a first-principles redesign of vessels. By eliminating the need for human crews, ships can be built with fundamentally less steel and fewer labor hours, drastically reducing costs and build times compared to traditional naval platforms.

The true value of autonomy is not just making one truck self-driving, but creating system-level intelligence where a heterogeneous mix of machines in a port or mine can communicate and optimize operations collectively. This unlocks efficiency gains far beyond single-agent automation.

The biggest long-term impact of autonomy may be in machine design. Once a human operator is no longer needed, constraints like cabs, breathing apparatus in mines, or specific form factors for visibility disappear, allowing for the creation of smaller, cheaper, and more task-specific machines.

Counterintuitively, remotely operating ships may increase total jobs. On-ship crews are replaced by larger, shore-based teams working in shorter, more efficient shifts to manage remote monitoring. This model creates more, safer, and potentially more flexible jobs, countering the typical automation-causes-job-loss narrative.

Electric ships drastically cut maintenance by eliminating internal combustion engines. This reduction in required onboard human labor is the key enabler for shifting crews ashore and operating vessels remotely, a connection not immediately obvious to most.

A huge portion of a ship's capital cost is for building a 'city at sea' for the crew, including hospitals, kitchens, and plumbing. This non-obvious cost driver is the primary source of savings in uncrewed, teleoperated vessel designs, as the entire support infrastructure can be removed.

The economic case for autonomous trucks isn't just saving on driver salary. By designing a "cab-less" vehicle from scratch, the entire truck becomes lighter and cheaper to build, allowing the total equipment cost to be competitive with traditional diesel trucks.

Modern piracy often targets the crew for ransom, not the cargo. By removing the crew, teleoperated ships eliminate the pirates' primary financial incentive. These vessels can also be designed as 'hard targets' without handrails or accessible doors, further deterring physical attacks.