NATIONAL HARBOR, MD -- Unmanned surface vessel developer Saildrone -- in partnership with Thales Australia -- recently successfully integrated an autonomous payload with its Surveyor USV, both companies announced during Sea-Air-Space.
In recent sea trials funded by the Office of Naval Research, Thales’ BlueSentry thin-line towed array sonar system was paired with Saildrone’s Surveyor. When integrated, the project demonstrated the two components “can effectively detect and classify both underwater and surface threats and report this information to decision makers in real time,” according to a Saildrone news release.
During the trial, the USV and BlueSentry sonar system operated for 26 continuous days, maintaining uptime greater than 96%. The system uses Starlink and Iridium satellites to secure data transmission, according to the release.
“The acoustic performance of the BlueSentry array, paired with a platform as silent and capable as the Saildrone Surveyor, represents a considerable step forward in undersea observation,” Saildrone CEO Richard Jenkins said in a news release. “The extreme endurance of the system allows us to put eyes and ears in places that were previously out of reach, at a cost point orders of magnitude below traditional manned surveillance platforms.”
The sea trials follow recent moves by Saildrone to improve operations in GPS-denied environments. The company announced a new positioning system in March, one that allows USVs to operate in places with no access to GPS.