Saildrone Joins Growing Competition for Navy's Medium-Sized Drone Vessel

With sail, left, and without (Courtesy Saildrone)

San Francisco-based tech company Saildrone is throwing its hat into the ring for the Navy's Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel, the latest and most ambitious iteration of the service's search for a blue-water unmanned combatant. Like others in this hotly-contested new shipbuilding segment, Saildrone's offer is designed to carry containerized payloads for multiple missions. Unlike others, it has an optional sail and is geared for near-silent running, an essential quality for anti-submarine warfare.

The MUSV program (recently returning to its original name after previous efforts at rebranding as the "MASC" and "Future USV") has attracted applicants from across the defense establishment and the startup space - often in consortia, pairing designers and technologists with experienced shipbuilders. Among others, the prominent competitors include Saronic; Hanwha/HavocAI; Blue Water Autonomy/Conrad Shipyard; Sea Machines; Anduril/HD Hyundai; and, now, Saildrone/Fincantieri/Lockheed Martin.

Saildrone has emphasized its many years of operating history and the efforts at detailed engineering that went into its proposed design, the Spectre. The 250-tonne vessel can make 27 knots with a payload of 25 tonnes. CPP propulsion with electric power (up to 12 knots) yields a very low acoustic signature when hunting submarines with a towed array. Alternately, for strike missions, the vessel can leave the sail behind and carry two Mk70 VLS launchers (a total of eight VLS cells).

Saildrone plans to start building the first hull at Fincantieri Marine Group shortly, with sea trials expected early next year.

The Navy has the funding to put into the most successful drone-boat ventures. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocated $2.1 billion for medium USVs and $188 million for unmanned vessel R&D, on top of the Navy's FY2026 defense bill appropriations. Looking ahead, the FY2027 proposed budget is vast - $1.5 trillion for the military as a whole - and calls for "unprecedented investments" in unmanned systems in general.