Saildrone

What It Is

Saildrone builds uncrewed surface vessels: boats with nobody aboard that stay at sea for months on wind, solar and diesel power. It does not make aircraft. The company is based in Alameda, California. Richard Jenkins, a British engineer, is its founder and chief executive. John Mustin, a retired US Navy vice admiral, is president.

Its main customers are the US Navy and Coast Guard, with ocean-mapping work alongside. The company says its fleet has sailed more than 2 million nautical miles and logged 60,000 days at sea. It made its first ocean crossing in 2013, and the US Navy first fielded its vessels in 2021.

In 2025 Saildrone opened a European headquarters in Copenhagen. In August 2026 it named production partners in the Netherlands, Norway and Poland.

Key Products

Voyager is the 10-metre surveillance and coastal-mapping vessel. It carries cameras, radar and AIS receivers, and the company says it can stay at sea for about 100 days. The Navy uses Voyagers to watch for drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. In May 2026 Saildrone said 16 were deploying for the Coast Guard on the Great Lakes and in the North Atlantic, under a $15.5 million contract.

Surveyor is the 20-metre deep-ocean model. Saildrone lists an 80 hp diesel engine with wind assist from its rigid wing, a mapping speed of 6 knots and 100 days between service stops. The first production Surveyor was launched at Austal USA in 2024.

Spectre is a different class of ship. Unveiled on 20 April 2026, it is 52 metres long, weighs 250 tonnes and reaches up to 30 knots. It is built for anti-submarine warfare and can carry Lockheed Martin’s Mk 70 missile launchers and towed sonar. One version keeps the wing for quiet endurance; a wingless “Stealth Strike” version trades it for speed. Jenkins put the price at about $40 million per vessel and said the design was self-funded.

Business and Financial Position

Saildrone is private and publishes no revenue. It raised a $100 million Series C in October 2021. In May 2025 it closed a $60 million round anchored by EIFO, Denmark’s state export and investment fund, with Lux Capital and Crowley among existing backers, to pay for the move into Europe. The round came with a Danish Armed Forces contract for four Voyagers in the Baltic.

Lockheed Martin invested $50 million on 29 October 2025. Lockheed acts as mission integrator and Saildrone keeps the shipbuilding. The first job is fitting Lockheed’s JAGM Quad Launcher, a missile launcher, to a Surveyor, with live-fire demonstrations planned for 2026.

Government work comes in short task orders. In August 2026 the Navy extended Voyager operations for US Southern Command into 2027 with a $16.3 million task order, Saildrone said.

Why It Matters

Saildrone spent a decade as an ocean-data company. Since October 2025 it has been turning itself into a builder of armed ships. Its strongest asset is time at sea: Voyagers have patrolled for Southern Command since 2023, and the Navy says one helped track a vessel later stopped with about $81 million of cocaine in October 2025.

Spectre is still a design. Saildrone said in April that Fincantieri would build hulls in Wisconsin, with first sea trials in early 2027. In August Jenkins said the first one would be built at Van Der Valk Shipyard in the Netherlands. The two 2026 government orders above, worth $16.3 million and $15.5 million, add up to less than the price of one Spectre.