After completing operational tests late last year, the US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) began operating the Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessel (USV) in the Arabian Gulf on January 27.
The move is part of the service’s plan to expand US 5th Fleet’s integration of new unmanned systems, which has already included the establishment of a Saildrone operations hub at the Royal Jordanian naval base in Aqaba, Jordan.
Task Force 59, NAVCENT’s dedicated staff for new unmanned systems and artificial intelligence discovery, initiated Saildrone operational testing off the coast of Bahrain one month after launching the Saildrone in the Gulf of Aqaba.
“The initial Saildrone assessment phase at sea in the Gulf of Aqaba has exceeded our expectations,” said Cmdr. Thomas McAndrew, the task force’s deputy commander. “We are applying the results and rapidly expanding operations.”
The Saildrone launched in the Gulf of Aqaba on December 12, successfully operated at sea continuously for more than 30 days, demonstrating persistence in a dynamic maritime environment.
The Saildrone Explorer is a 23-foot-long, 16-foot-tall USV reliant on wind power for propulsion. The vessel houses a package of sensors powered through solar energy for building a shared picture of the surrounding seas.
Last September, NAVCENT established Task Force 59 in Bahrain where it is headquartered. The task force has since commenced at-sea evaluations of new Mantas T-12 and Devil Ray T-38 USVs off the coast of Bahrain before International Maritime Exercise (IMX) 2022 in February.
IMX is slated to include unmanned systems from partner nations, which will make it the largest unmanned exercise in world.
“The interest and support from our partners has grown exponentially as we collectively learn from operational testing,” said McAndrew. “We are mutually benefiting from these systems, and the creativity and new use cases can only come from our experience in the water.”
