Hawk Technologies Awarded Michigan Maritime Innovation Grant for FORGE Program
Hancock, MI — July 24, 2026
Hawk Technologies, LLC has been awarded a Michigan Maritime Innovation Grant from the Michigan Office of Future Mobility and Electrification (OFME), supporting the company's FORGE program (Freshwater Operational Requirements to Government-Ready Equipment).
The award is one of five projects selected statewide through the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform, part of a combined $1.5 million state investment expected to leverage an additional $2 million in private sector support, for a total of $3.5 million across the five projects.
FORGE is an autonomous cold-water maritime first responder designed to close the gap in Lake Superior search and rescue response. When a mariner activates an emergency beacon in near-freezing water, survival is measured in minutes. FORGE addresses that gap through a distributed pre-staging network of autonomous vessels, developed in partnership with Keweenaw County Search and Rescue, the Keweenaw County Sheriff's Office, Michigan Technological University's Great Lakes Research Center (Marine Autonomy Research Site), and observed by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Over the next twelve months, Hawk will develop the FORGE autonomous system, validate it at MTU's MARS test site on the Portage Waterway, and demonstrate it in open water on Lake Superior. The program also produces a Level 4 Technical Data Package, a complete manufacturing package that will allow qualified Michigan manufacturers to build the design independently, positioning FORGE as both an operational tool for regional search and rescue and a model for distributed, Michigan-based surge manufacturing.
"Hawk's FORGE initiative shows what Michigan's maritime and mobility leadership looks like in action: a small Upper Peninsula company, working with local search and rescue operators and Michigan Tech's Marine Autonomy Research Site, turning a life-saving operational need on Lake Superior into a scalable, production-ready solution, designed and built right here in Michigan," said Greg Kangas, President of Hawk Technologies.
FORGE is anchored by the state's Michigan Maritime Innovation Grant and advances the goals of Michigan's first statewide Maritime Strategy, a ten-year roadmap to grow the state's maritime economy through infrastructure, clean energy, workforce development, and innovation. Learn more about the full grant program and the other selected projects in the official announcement from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.
