U.S. defence start-up Saronic has won a $322 million contract from the U.S. Navy to provide it with an unspecified number of its Corsair uncrewed surface vessels (USVs).
Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) John Phelan announced the Other Transaction Authority (OTA) deal at the recent Reagan National Defense Forum. OTAs are flexible procurement instruments used by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to bypass Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) to speed up acquisition.
In a statement on social media SECNAV Phelan commented: “The Navy isn’t admiring problems from the sidelines, we’re moving at war-footing speed. With Saronic, we went from prototype to production in under a year. That’s rapid innovation, real competition, and combat power in sailors’ and marines’ hands, not on PowerPoints.”
The firm has also recently revealed plans to invest $300 million revamping its shipyard in Louisiana to construct autonomous surface vessels.
As per its statement: “The company broke ground on the new construction project in November 2025, which will add more than 300,000 square feet of new production capacity. The project is slated for completion by the end of 2026, with expanded operations coming online in early 2027.”
The firm, which is based in Austin, Texas, and has an office in San Diego, acquired the former Gulf Craft shipyard in Franklin, Louisiana to use it as the prototyping and production hub for Marauder.
The 150ft medium uncrewed surface vessel (MUSV) is the largest in its range of autonomous uncrewed surface vessel (ASV) platforms which start with the six-foot Spyglass platform.
The Corsair USV which is the subject of the U.S. Navy contract is a 24-foot modular platform capable of 35+ knots with a payload of about 1,000 lbs and an estimated range of roughly 1,000 nautical miles.
The firm says the USV is suitable for blue-water missions ranging from maritime domain awareness to kinetic and non-kinetic strike roles.
- You can read more details about Corsair on the Saronic website and more about its factory expansion here and more about the deal on the SECNAV’s X account