Company
Alameda, California company that builds uncrewed surface vehicles, including the large Surveyor-class drone, for ocean research, NOAA, and U.S. Navy missions.
The Naval Oceanographic Office is paying Saildrone $10 million to survey parts of the Atlantic floor with uncrewed vessels. It is work the Navy has done from crewed survey ships with oceanographic specialists aboard.
Reality
Reuters reported on September 9 that Iranian forces recovered the 19-foot autonomous vehicle after it failed near the Strait of Hormuz. The Navy calls the lost unit older and defective; Anduril has called the platform the most reliable on the market.
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The hull carried the launcher and the link while the Navy's Adjunct Remote Engagement System held fire control. That division of labour is what six months of integration actually bought, on terms Lockheed Martin has only partly disclosed.
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Lockheed Martin and Saildrone put an existing launcher and fire-control box on a commercial hull and shot at a target off Hawaii. The hard part left is not the hardware.
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The Plymouth startup says the sensing is solved and the throughput is not. With 100 units on order and a raise one twentieth the size of Saildrone's, the constraint is the build line.
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