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Saildrone to produce USVs in Australia from 2024

13th November 2023 - 07:45 GMT | by Tim Fish in Sydney

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Saildrone’s existing fleet consists of the Voyager and Explorer USVs built in Alabama at a rate of one per week. Voyager measures 33ft (10m) long with Explorer at 23ft (7m) long. (Photo: Tim Fish)

The use of long-duration Uncrewed Surface Vehicles for maritime surveillance and monitoring has become part of the fleet inventory as navies try to reduce the level of effort required to gather intelligence on areas of interest.

Saildrone, a US-based ocean drone manufacturer, has said it will receive the first of its new class of 15t, 70ft (20m-long) Surveyor Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USVs) from Austal USA’s facility in Mobile, Alabama, in the US. The facility will produce about one platform per month.

As part of growth in the industry, Saildrone has said it also expected to start manufacturing its USVs in Australia from 2024 at the Austal shipyard in Western Australia.

Richard Jenkins, CEO and founder of Saildrone, told Shephard: ‘Once we finish the production line set-up in the US we will do the same thing in Perth to meet

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Author

Tim Fish

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Tim Fish is a special correspondent for Shephard Media. Formerly the editor of Land Warfare …

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