Thales and Saildrone Hail Success Of USV's Extended ISR Test

Defence firm Thales and drone-vessel specialist Saildrone have together developed an autonomous system for long-duration maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.

One of Saildrone’s Surveyor-class Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USVs) recently spent almost a month at sea off the coast of California, using the BlueSentry thin-line towed sonar array developed by Thales Australia.

As per recent press statements by the two firms, during the extended operational test the vessel successfully identified and tracked both surface and underwater vessels of interest in real time. 

The Thales statement noted: “The system showed particularly strong results in maintaining continuous surveillance across high-traffic areas where traditional maritime security assets are stretched thin and face significant operational challenges,” and added: “The system showed an ability to detect and track surface vessels, submarines and UUVs.”

The Surveyor USV harnesses both wind and solar power and sports a high-tech suite of sensors and communications technology; the BlueSentry towed array is a sonar payload designed specifically for anti-submarine warfare that uses both active and passive acoustic sensor technology, along with signal processing, recording, and reporting.

The firms claim the system presents a scalable, low-cost alternative to traditional surveillance platforms which they can deploy at scale to create a network of autonomous, self-sustaining surveillance assets.

CEO of Thales Australia and New Zealand Jeff Connolly commented: “This partnership and integration set the standard for future ISR at sea… [it] paves the way for greater naval interoperability between AUKUS partners and delivers on AUKUS Pillar 2 Undersea Warfare needs.

“The successful test has proven the new system’s ready-to-deploy capabilities which can be used to detect drug trafficking, enemy submarines or even people smuggling vessels.”

And founder and CEO of Saildrone Richard Jenkins added: “The acoustic performance of the BlueSentry array, paired with a platform as silent and capable as the Saildrone Surveyor, represents a considerable step forward in undersea observation… 

“The extreme endurance of the system allows us to put eyes and ears in places that were previously out of reach, at a cost point orders of magnitude below traditional manned surveillance platforms.”

• You can read more details on the Thales website and the Saildrone website