Saildrone, Thales Australia integrate acoustic sensor technology into Surveyor USV

Saildrone and Thales engineers look at a detection event during testing of the Saildrone Surveyor equipped with a Thales BlueSentry array. | Source: Saildrone

Saildrone Inc. has integrated its Saildrone Surveyor uncrewed surface vehicle, or USV, with the BlueSentry thin-line towed array from Thales Australia. The result is a system for autonomous long-endurance undersea maritime domain awareness, or MDA, for Australia, the U.S., and the U.K.

“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,” stated Richard Jenkins, founder and CEO of Saildrone. “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.”

Saildrone said it has developed USVs powered by renewable wind and solar energy, enabling long-duration operations measured in months, not days. The Alameda, Calif.-based company said its proprietary software and machine learning can transform collected data into actionable insights and intelligence.

Saildrone added that its systems can collect real-time, accurate data for navies, navies, law enforcement, civil government, and commercial organizations. The Alameda, Calif.-based company said it has sailed more than 1.6 million nautical miles from the High North to the Southern Ocean and spent over 46,000 days at sea in the harshest ocean conditions on the planet.

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Sea trials demonstrate Surveyor and BlueSentry endurance

The U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) funded the project. Extensive sea trials conducted off the coast of California demonstrated that Saildrone and Thales’ joint system can effectively detect and classify both underwater and surface threats and report this information to decision makers in real time.

During the ONR trial, the Surveyor and BlueSentry system operated continuously for 26 days and maintained uptime greater than 96%.

Saildrone said its Surveyor, Explorer, and Voyager USVs can cost-effectively gather data for science, fisheries, weather forecasting, and more. The company said its autonomous vessels can deliver observations about activity above and below the ocean surface.

Saildrone, Thales prep for scaled deployments

The Saildrone payload includes the Thales Thin Line Array with onboard edge processing, secure sea-to-shore data transmission of acoustic intelligence, and shore-based human-machine interface (HMI) for real-time acoustic analysis.

Thales Australia is a partner of the Australian Defence Force in the Land, Sea, and Air environment. Its BlueSentry technology employs acoustic sensor technology used by navies around the world to detect, classify, and localize surface and sub-surface contacts.

The trials showed that, under wind propulsion, the Surveyor provided a near-zero self-noise environment, significantly improving the detection capabilities of the BlueSentry sonar system. Using Starlink and Iridium satellite communications, the system is capable of persistent, secure data transmission, supporting real-time decision-making from remote locations worldwide.

“This partnership and ready-to-deploy capability set the standard for future intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance at sea, particularly in sensitive and remote regions that have significant operational challenges,” said Jeff Connolly, CEO of Thales Australia and New Zealand. “The integration of Thales Australia’s BlueSentry onto Saildrone’s Surveyor class, as a core component of its maritime domain awareness solution, paves the way for greater naval interoperability between AUKUS [Australia, the U.K., and the U.S.] partners and delivers on AUKUS Pillar 2 undersea warfare requirements.”

Saildrone and Thales Australia said they’re ready to deploy these systems at scale, creating a network of autonomous, self-sustaining surveillance assets to enhance national security. As threats evolve and the demand for persistent undersea awareness increases, the Saildrone-Thales system offers a scalable, low-cost alternative to traditional surveillance platforms, the companies said.

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