Saildrone announces new USV class aimed at anti-submarine warfare

Saildrone, a maritime defense company, announced on Monday a new class of unmanned surface vessels designed for anti-submarine warfare operations.

The company released the Saildrone Spectre design, a vessel 54 meters long and 250 metric tons that’s capable of a speed up to 30 knots, making it the company’s “most capable” platform, Salidrone said.

Spectre is meant for ASW missions, which demand “extreme endurance and an ultra-quiet acoustic signature,” according to an advanced company release shared with Military Times. The release states that the vessel utilizes the wing system’s endurance and silent propulsion to fulfill ASW operations.

Richard Jenkins, Saildrone’s founder and CEO, revealed the two vessels, one without a wing and one with, to reporters at Monday’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition and said it marked the first time the company is selling a Saildrone vessel without a wing.

“While the Saildrone wing is very good for very long endurance, we do appreciate what other roles require more stealth, more speed, and don’t have a mission requirement for that exceptional endurance without the wing,” Jenkins told reporters on Monday.

Saildrone is partnering with Lockheed Martin, who works as a “mission integrator supporting the mission autonomy,” Paul Lemmo, a vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin, said to reporters Monday alongside Jenkins.

Lemmo described the vessel class as being a lower-priced way to put more “players on the field.”

The design was approved in principle by the American Bureau of Shipping, meaning it complies with High Speed Naval Craft class certification. The statement asserts that the two years of design and testing “entirely de-risked” the design and performance.

Jenkins said Spectre is completely self-funded, and each vessel is priced at around $40 million.

Construction is set to begin soon at the Fincantieri system of shipyards in Wisconsin, which is capable of manufacturing five Spectre vessels per year. The first of the sea trials is slated for early 2027.