vessel

Ocean intelligence company Saildrone has just put the first of a new generation of Surveyor autonomous vessels in the water: an aluminum version that the Navy is keen to take advantage of. Founder and CEO Richard Jenkins told TechCrunch that the demand for vessels like SailDrone’s is only growing. So far, no one has suggested weaponizing the Saildrone vessels, though. The Austal line is expected to be able to put out one Surveyor every six weeks to start with. SD-3000 and a few of its in-progress aluminum kin will be detailed to Navy testing of its capability of producing “surface and undersea intelligence for a range of high-priority applications, including anti-submarine warfare.”