Shipbuilder Austal USA Partners with USV Firm Saildrone

Shipbuilder Austal USA and has formed a strategic partnership with Saildrone, Inc to build cutting-edge, autonomous uncrewed surface vehicles.

The partnership  ensures that production of the autonomous and uncrewed Saildrone Surveyor will accelerate to meet the growing demand of the U.S. Navy and other government customers for the cutting-edge solution for maritime domain awareness, hydrographic survey, and other missions requiring persistent wide area coverage. Autonomous vessel capability has been identified as an area of strategic importance by the U.S. Navy. 

The aluminum-hulled Saildrone Surveyor, at 65 feet (20m) in length, is designed specifically for deep ocean mapping and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) applications, both above and below the surface. It was developed and designed by Saildrone and will be manufactured exclusively by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala. Austal will begin manufacturing the first Saildrone Surveyor vehicles for the U.S. Navy in October 2022.

“We are extremely pleased to enter into this agreement with Saildrone. It is a great fit as both of us are leaders in our respective markets and we both strive to provide leading edge solutions to the U.S. Navy,” said Austal USA President Rusty Murdaugh. “With our lean manufacturing techniques and serial production capabilities, Austal USA will provide large scale fabrication of these vehicles and with our partner Saildrone rapidly get the capability to the Fleet.”

“Saildrone is the clear world leader in small uncrewed systems, with a track record of almost one million ocean miles under our belt on our 100-strong fleet,” said Richard Jenkins, Saildrone Founder and CEO. “Austal is leading the way in the large uncrewed sector, pioneering autonomy and reliability of much larger systems capable of carrying much heavier payloads. We see these two technologies as extremely complementary. Building these two extremes of size in the same facility, and leveraging Austal’s advanced manufacturing capabilities, will dramatically accelerate our ability to get Saildrones into the hands of our customers.”