Drone ship manufacturer Saronic today announced $55 million in Series A funding to accelerate research and development and expand domestic manufacturing capabilities to build autonomous drone ships for the US Navy. Its founders believe Saronic is uniquely positioned to build a new generation of robotic ships and envision a future in which thousands of unmanned ships will serve as a "loyal wing" to Navy warships. .
Drone ships, also known as naval drones or unmanned surface vessels (USVs), have been around for a long time, but it was the conflict in Ukraine that first gave rise to them. Ukraine does not have a navy, but has used various drones in successful kamikaze attacks against Russian ships and the Kerch bridge. The Ukrainian drone fleet has hampered the Russian fleet and remains mostly in Crimean ports. But Saronic had been developing this technology for years, and it was more than a kamikaze attack. The company envisions robotic ships that support ships for all kinds of missions.
"We're building a platform for a series of systems that can be integrated with payloads and sensors," said founder Rob Lehman, a former US Marine. This includes all surface ship surveillance, anti-submarine warfare and anti-aircraft operations and more. "Our naval platform enables a variety of mission requirements ranging from command and control, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting (ISRT), etc., to deliver kinetic and non-kinetic effects."
Lehmann noted that they were designed specifically for the US Navy's mission, ensuring that the ships are fit for the mission and not the other way around.
Saronic has so far built two drone boats, the six-foot Spyglass and the thirteen-foot Cutlass, both of which have advanced sensors and a high degree of autonomy. These are not remote-controlled ships, as seen in Ukraine, guided by human operators via video, but robots capable of carrying out their missions.
"It's not just about autonomous navigation, where a ship can travel by itself through different waypoints," Lehmann said. "The true mission autonomy we're going to build will be relevant and credible."
This autonomy goes beyond detecting and avoiding other ships, but also involves complex behavior involving multiple ships. For example, a ship on an anti-submarine warfare mission that receives a signal might maneuver to get a better view, while another drone signals the ship to move in a coordinated group to locate the source, as well as to given details about people. Officials say this is consistent with ideas such as the Navy's Super Swarm project, which could attack swarms of kamikaze ships alongside aerial drones and small robotic submarines.
Lehmann said their design process ensured the ships were affordable (a term used for many basic platforms, such as the expensive F-35) and not "fancy" and that everything was aimed at products that could be built quickly and on a large scale. . Drone ships should be attributable, not fully expendable. Unlike the Ukrainian remote-controlled kamikaze ships, these ships were expected to survive and carry out many missions, but they were cheap enough to be easily replaced and (unlike manned ships) commanders would not hesitate to sacrifice them those when it was necessary. . They will spread by the thousands.
"We've opened our eyes to price sensitivity," Lehman said. "Our prices are more like guns than ships."
There are many other US companies in the drone ship industry, from defense companies to shipbuilders. But Saonic can boast a unique advantage.
"We are the only company in the market that started as a technology company with the mission of providing shipboard capabilities to the Department of Defense," said Dino Mavroukas, co-founder and former Navy SEAL. "The other is shipping companies, which are trying to adopt new technologies to provide capacity. We've seen that when you try to adapt new software from the autonomous driving sector, it's not scalable.
Saronic develops software and hardware side by side to create efficient integrated packages.
The idea of a tech company trying to revolutionize a defense sector dominated by established contactor giants is gaining momentum. Saronic is pursuing the same dream as the billion-dollar startup Anduril, another technology company focused on the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence in relation to specific platforms. Anduril's latest acquisition will build low-cost "loyal wing" drones to support F-35 pilots and replenish their numbers. Saonic plans to do the same at sea.
"We want to increase the surface fleet, which will remain important in a small and attributed platform," Mavroukas said.
Mavrokas said the unmanned ships would provide a "stalemate," allowing manned ships to remain at a safe distance from the enemy while the unmanned ships would act as eyes and ears and, if necessary, platforms for sending weapons. .
Some drone ships, like the Ukrainian ship, can be designed as munitions for one-way attacks. However, the system can be combined with other sensors to identify targets and assess the impact of an attack, or with electronic warfare vessels to deceive, confuse and jam enemy warships.
Others may have been designed for the opposite mission: to act as a defensive screen against enemy invasion ships. Lehman stressed the urgent need for competition and resolution with China.
"We understand the sensitivity of the time," Mavrookas said. "This is our drive to try to create innovative solutions that provide capabilities that do not yet exist and are desperately needed."
The $55 million Series A round was led by Caffeinated Capital with participation from 8VC, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Point72 Ventures, Silent Ventures, Overmatch Ventures, Ensemble VC, Cubit Capital and US Innovative Technology Fund.
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