The Navy urgently contracted the use of five wind-powered, unmanned surface vessels for data collection during a major exercise with the intent to survey industry for other capabilities if the demonstrations are successful. The Office of Naval Research awarded the $500,000 contract, made using special acquisition authorities to bypass a full-and-open competition, to Saildrone. The contract includes "services of a fleet of five unmanned surface vessels to simultaneously supply near-real-time reports of in situ meteorological, oceanographic and visual imagery data...
