The U.S Navy has chosen Saronic and awarded the company $392 million to build and deliver autonomous drone boats, in one of the Navy’s biggest Other Transaction Authority agreements for maritime unmanned systems.
Around $200 million has already been allocated, per the Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan.
This reflects a push to ramp up procurement cycles and get unmanned ships into the fleet faster than the usual acquisition timelines allow.
Saronic will deliver its Corsair-class Autonomous Surface Vessel, the biggest in its unmanned maritime systems lineup.
The 24-foot ship will have a 1000 nm range, a 1000 pound payload capacity and can attain a speed of over 35 knots.
Corsair will support maritime domain awareness, surveillance operations and much more. It will extend the reach of manned vessels while reducing risk for U.S naval personnel.
Saronic, based in Austin, is a non-traditional defence company which focuses on fully autonomous maritime systems which function as distributed nodes in a manned-unmanned teaming ecosystem.
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