Saildrone and Thales have trialled a scalable, cost-effective system capable of autonomously scouring the oceans to detect undersea and surface threats.
In the firms’ most recent collaboration, US ocean drone company Saildrone integrated the BlueSentry thin-line towed sonar array from defence company Thales Australia into its Surveyor-class uncrewed surface vehicle (USV).
They have now completed a trial that has seen persistent undersea and surface surveillance conducted in Saildrone’s fully autonomous, long-endurance vehicle.
Saildrone develops USVs capable of performing long-range, long-endurance missions in the open ocean to obtain real-time data.
Last year, Saildrone announced that its SD-3000 aluminium Surveyor-class USV was to begin testing with the US Navy to help map the seafloor to depths of 36,000ft (11,000 metres).
During the continuous 26-day mission off the coast of California, the BlueSentry sonar system showed an ability to detect and track surface vessels, submarines and...