Saronic Wins Navy Production Contract for 180-Foot Autonomous Surface Vessel

Saronic Technologies has won a U.S. Navy production contract for its 180-foot Marauder autonomous surface vessel after completing an at-sea evaluation that put the ship through more than 140 scenarios over eight days of continuous operations.

The firm-fixed-price production Other Transaction award comes through the Navy’s Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel, or MUSV, Marketplace, an acquisition effort aimed at moving commercially mature autonomous vessels into the fleet faster than under a traditional shipbuilding program.

The Navy announced seven companies for the MUSV Marketplace at-sea demonstrations in May, including Saronic, Sea Machines, Leidos, Galliano Marine Services, PacMar Technologies, Birdon and Huntington Ingalls Industries. The Navy said companies that successfully completed the testing would become eligible for follow-on production awards.

Saronic said Marauder completed more than 140 test scenarios without failure during eight days of round-the-clock operations. The trials included autonomous tracking and maneuvering around other vessels as well as passive-perception tests requiring the vessel to detect, track and follow traffic without relying on active radar.

The company said the same vessel was used throughout the evaluation, with the tests conducted back-to-back rather than on a specially configured test platform.

“Marauder went from initial design to on-the-water in under a year, and this evaluation demonstrated that the platform holds up under the Navy’s own toughest testing,” said Saronic co-founder and CEO Dino Mavrookas.

Saronic did not disclose the value of the production award or how many Marauder vessels it covers.

The company describes Marauder as a long-range autonomous vessel capable of carrying up to 150 metric tons of modular payload. According to Saronic’s published specifications, the vessel has a range of up to 5,400 nautical miles and a top speed exceeding 25 knots.

The production award adds another Navy program to Saronic’s rapidly expanding order book. The company already holds a production agreement for its smaller, 24-foot Corsair autonomous surface vessel.

Corsair moved beyond testing earlier this year. In July, three of the vessels were used in strikes against Iranian naval infrastructure at Bandar Abbas, marking what U.S. Central Command described as the first combat use of American sea drones. The operation followed a June incident in which a Navy-operated Corsair recovered two U.S. Army aviators after their Apache helicopter crashed off Oman. gCaptain previously reported on Corsair’s combat debut near the Strait of Hormuz.

Saronic is also moving into larger conventional Navy shipbuilding. Earlier this month, the Navy selected Saronic alongside Conrad Shipyard and Master Boat Builders for prototype agreements to construct LCU 1700 landing craft. The three awards carry a combined initial construction obligation of about $280.5 million, according to the Navy.

Saronic plans to build its landing craft at Port Alpha, the massive new shipyard it is developing in Brownsville, Texas. The company selected Brownsville in July for the more than $3 billion project, which is expected to begin operations in 2028 and eventually support construction of both crewed and autonomous vessels. gCaptain reported on the Port Alpha project in July.

The Marauder award gives Saronic a production foothold at the larger end of the Navy’s autonomous surface fleet as the service looks to move unmanned vessels from experimental programs into operational use.

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