US defence technology company ThayerMahan recently took delivery of two unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) powered by wind, wave, and solar energy.
The two craft will initially be deployed off Connecticut for marine mammal monitoring and for additional demonstrations.
The acquisition of the USVs came following a series of demonstrations in California's San Diego Harbour at the end of April 2024. One of the craft operated in San Diego Harbour participating in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) exercises while the other operated 15 nautical miles off the coast carrying a ThayerMahan passive acoustic array system.
The passive array system on the USV's keel winch was deployed to variable significant depths with on-board processing and communications live back to base. ThayerMahan said this was all done in a sustainable manner using renewable energy for five days achieving a successful results-driven demonstration.
The company acquired both USVs for the equivalent of approximately US$1.6 million.
Mike Connor, CEO of ThayerMahan, said that combining ThayerMahan's acoustic sensing system with the USVs' manoeuvrability, functionality, and payload capacity enables the company to maximise the performance of its scalable autonomous surveillance systems.