Amid its work on big Navy ships and subs and Coast Guard cutters, Austal USA also builds some strange-looking sail-powered drone ships. Compared to a warship they’re tiny, but according to a leading science and technology site, their impact on ocean science is proving to be revolutionary. They’re providing torrents of data as they sail everywhere from iceberg-laden Arctic waters to the hearts of Atlantic hurricanes.
Austal announced in August 2022 that it had struck a partnership with Saildrone Inc. to build a drone ship called the Saildrone Surveyor. Surveyors are about 65 feet long with a low-profile hull topped by a rigid sail. At the time, Austal said it first Surveyor would be delivered to the U.S. Navy. (Though used extensively for science, the Surveyor also can handle intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance work, according to Saildrone and Austal.)
That announcement provided just a glimpse of what Surveyors and other sail-powered drone ships can do. With most of their propulsion coming from the sail, and solar panels supplying power, they can be send on missions that last for months, mapping seafloors and gathering data. A new in-depth article from arstechnica.com provides a wealth of information on the work that drone ships, particularly Saildrone’s vessels, have been doing in recent years.
Titled “Drones take to the waves: Saildrones are getting data where people can’t,” the article gives some impressive examples of the ways drones are being used to gather data relevant to navigation, climate science and fishery management. “Saildrones serve as mobile meteorological stations, biological monitoring devices, and even ocean floor mappers,” it says. “They can survive terrifyingly tall waves, hurricane-force winds, and seas studded with ice, and they can stay out for months at a time.”
Among their feats so far: At least one Saildrone vessel has successfully circumnavigated the notoriously inhospitable Southern Ocean. Another, operated by NOAA, pierced the eyewall of a Category 4 hurricane in 2021, a feat that another drone repeated in 2022.
According to information provided by Austal USA, work started in April on the first Saildrone Surveyor to be built in Mobile. That vessel is to be delivered in August, the first of a planned run of 20.
According to a 2021 report by www.forbes.com, Saildrone founder Richard Jenkins said at the time that a Surveyor with a standard sensor suite would cost about $7.5 million. But the Forbes report suggested the cost could vary widely depending on the mission, the sensor suite involved, and the service model.
Austal said that the partnership broadens the company’s portfolio of work on autonomous vessels. It also has built and modified one of its Expeditionary Fast Transports, EPF 13, for autonomous operation, and it is constructing an autonomous vessel designated OUSV 3 for L3Harris.
In April, Saildrone and Austal Ltd., the Australian parent company of Austal USA, announced that Austal Australia also would build Saildrone Surveyors in Australia “for deployments in the Indo-Pacific region.”
For more on the scientific impact of drone ships, visit arstechnica.com.
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