230913-N-N3764-1004 NAVAL STATION KEY WEST, Fl. – (Sept. 13, 2023) — Commercial operators deploy Saildrone Voyager Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) out to sea in the initial steps of U.S. 4th Fleet’s Operation Windward Stack during a launch from Naval Air Station Key West’s Mole Pier and Truman Harbor, Sept. 13, 2023. Operation Windward Stack is part of 4th Fleet’s unmanned integration campaign, which provides the Navy a region to experiment with and operate unmanned systems in a permissive environment, develop Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) against near-peer competitors, and refine manned and unmanned Command and Control (C2) infrastructure, all designed to move the Navy to the hybrid fleet. (U.S. Navy photo by Danette Baso Silvers/Released)
U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet doesn’t have a lot of afloat assets.
Typically, they just get to task Coast Guard cutters/craft via the Key West-based Joint Interagency Task Force South, Freedom-variant littoral combat ships out of Mayport’s LCSRON2, small MSC-operated auxiliaries on hearts-and-minds missions, and the occasional passing phib group being sent down for an exercise or destroyer pulling an interdiction mission with an embarked USCG LEDET.
That’s what makes USVs such a game changer for the command.
They are cheap to acquire and deploy, ideal for ISR– making other assets much more effective– and have a small footprint.
Plus, using them in our “front yard” allows the Navy to iron out tactics and techniques in permissive environments before they are needed in higher-stakes operations in, say, the South China Sea or the Persian Gulf.
Operation Southern Spear, which is filling my local skies with F-35s and HH-60s of all sorts, will see more Robotic and Autonomous Systems (RAS) assets incorporated.
Specifically, Operation Southern Spear will deploy long-dwell robotic surface vessels, small robotic interceptor boats, and vertical take-off and landing robotic air vessels to the USSOUTHCOM AOR. 4th Fleet will operationalize these unmanned systems through integration with U.S. Coast Guard cutters at sea and operations centers at 4th Fleet and Joint Interagency Task Force South. Southern Spear’s results will help determine combinations of unmanned vehicles and manned forces needed to provide coordinated maritime domain awareness and conduct counternarcotics operations.
Ten 33-foot Saildrone Voyager USVs are used by the 4th Fleet and the company says that figure is set to rise to 20 such drones, tasked in support of Operation Southern Spear “to detect and stem the flow of illegal drugs traveling through known maritime corridors into the United States.”
The 33-foot Saildrone Voyager is designed for near-shore bathymetry and maritime security missions.
10 Voyager uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) from Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West’s Mole Pier, Sept. 2023.
In recent 2023-24 operations (Windward Stack), Saildrone disclosed that the 10 4th Fleet Voyagers sailed more than 130,000 nautical miles over 2,700 cumulative mission days. They detected 116,000 unique contacts, an average of 43 contacts per USV per day. Of the total contacts, 98,000 were not broadcasting AIS. Saildrones covered an area of 12,500 sq nm for $4.25 per nm per day, as calculated by the Center for Naval Analysis. This included shadowing three Russian ships as they approached Cuba in 2024.
Those figures should roughly double now with 20 Voyagers on hand.
Via the company this week:
A record number of 20 high-endurance Saildrone Voyager USVs equipped with a newly upgraded sensor suite will monitor illegal activity along the United States’ southern maritime approaches, operating in support of Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S) and US Naval Forces Southern Command/US Navy Fourth Fleet (NAVSOUTH/FOURTHFLT).
“It’s an honor to support the US Navy and Joint Interagency Task Force South in this critical border security mission,” said Richard Jenkins, Saildrone Founder and CEO. “As we increase the security on our southern land border, criminal activity will naturally get pushed to our maritime borders. Saildrone is proud to serve, providing a persistent, unblinking eye in maritime areas too vast and remote to previously monitor.”