Saildrone and Thales Australia Advance Autonomous Undersea Surveillance

Thales Australia’s BlueSentry thin-line towed array will be integrated with Saildrone Surveyor-class USVs for autonomous anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missions in the open ocean.

The Saildrone Surveyor is the largest in the Saildrone range of USVs and is capable of extreme, long-endurance missions in the open ocean. 

Equipped with the newest evolution of Thales’s BlueSentry towed array, the Surveyor will conduct autonomous underwater intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for ASW applications.

At 20 meters long (65 feet) and weighing 15 tons, the Surveyor classifies as a medium USV, built to ABS Light Warship code. Saildrone’s Surveyor-class USVs are designed for persistent, wide-area maritime domain awareness missions, using radar, cameras, acoustics, and advanced machine learning to deliver comprehensive situational awareness remotely from anywhere in the world.

This enhanced USV capability supports broader naval operations by freeing up traditional low-density / high-demand manned assets to conduct other missions.

The first production Saildrone Surveyor USV was launched last month from Austal USA in Mobile, AL. The initial group of USVs is contracted to the US Navy for the testing and evaluation of Surveyor-class vehicles in multiple environments. Upcoming Navy missions will focus on the ability of the Surveyor to deliver both surface and undersea intelligence for a range of high-priority applications, including ASW.