U.S., UK and Australia test Saronic drone boats together

Saronic Technologies’ Corsair drone boats, the same type the U.S. military used to strike an Iranian naval base in July, have operated alongside forces from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia at Maritime Big Play Pacific, the AUKUS partners’ largest demonstration of uncrewed and autonomous technology, held in San Diego this October.

The Texas company said it fielded three Corsairs across the three nations and that the boats ran several mission scenarios, including resupplying a pier with parts of the mission carried out while communications were denied, and a trilateral “sense, decide, effect” mission in which the Corsairs operated as part of a mixed fleet of uncrewed surface vessels supported by uncrewed aircraft.

Saronic said the boats were controlled through its Echelon software, integrated into the Common Control System used to command uncrewed vessels, and it credited the U.K. Royal Navy with giving the company the opportunity to take part, though it did not say which navy operated each boat or how long the boats ran without human input.

Maritime Big Play Pacific brought more than 40 government and industry technologies from the three countries to San Diego under AUKUS Pillar 2, the part of the partnership focused on advanced military technology, with the program organized around anti-submarine warfare, integrated lethality, contested resupply, and subsea and seabed warfare, while the Royal Navy led the anti-submarine warfare strand with its own uncrewed surface vessels, underwater gliders, drones and subsea vehicles.

The Corsair is a 7.3-meter (24-foot) autonomous surface vessel that can carry up to 453 kg (1,000 pounds) of payload, has a range of about 1,852 km (1,000 nautical miles) and a top speed above 35 knots, and the U.S. Navy awarded Saronic a $392 million production contract for the boats in December 2025.

Task Force 59 began fielding Corsairs in the Middle East in late March 2026, mostly for surveillance and support, and on July 12, 2026, three Corsairs struck Iran’s Bandar Abbas Naval Base, targeting a submarine and ship maintenance facility, in what U.S. Central Command called the first time American forces had used sea drones in combat operations.