Role & capabilities
- Deep-ocean seabed mapping
- Long-duration maritime surveillance
- Modular naval payload trials
- Primary domain
- Sea surface
- System type
- Uncrewed surface vessel
- Developer / manufacturer
- Saildrone
- Origin / production countries
- United States
- Other names
- Surveyor USV
- Variants / configurations
- Ocean-mapping configuration; Customer naval payload and demonstration configurations
- Operators / programme customers
- Saildrone — commercial and government missions; United States Navy — RIMPAC 2026 experimentation
Evidence & current status
Operational survey use and experimental naval payload integrations have different maturity. A successful exercise does not establish the fit of every Surveyor.
Surveyor is Saildrone's larger established ocean-going platform. It carries equipment for mapping the seabed and observing activity at sea, with more space and electrical capacity than Voyager. The current manufacturer specification identifies diesel propulsion assisted by a rigid wing, allowing missions that combine survey work and long transits.
The platform has both civilian and defence applications. Its modular architecture can accommodate different customer sensors, so a mapping vessel and a defence demonstration vessel need not have the same equipment. In August 2026 Saildrone reported that a Surveyor completed a naval payload demonstration with Lockheed Martin during RIMPAC, including remotely controlled weapon and electronic sensing trials.
That announcement establishes a specific demonstration, not universal armament across the Surveyor fleet or completion of a fleet-wide weapons programme. The headline endurance is a supplier service-interval figure. The published mapping speed is likewise a survey condition, and should not be treated as the vessel's maximum speed or multiplied by endurance to invent an operational range.
Sourced specifications
Figures apply to the named configuration. Maximum values are not guaranteed operating performance.
| Specification | Reported value | Context & source |
|---|---|---|
| Configuration | Uncrewed ocean-going survey and sensor platform | Supplier-published figure; configuration and operating conditions affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Hull / propulsion | 80 hp diesel primary; wind auxiliary | Supplier-published figure; configuration and operating conditions affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Dimensions | 20 m length; 13 m wing height; 3.6 m draft | Supplier-published figure; configuration and operating conditions affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Displacement / mass | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public data gap; no estimate or neighbouring variant value substituted. Source ↗ |
| Payload | 3 kW continuous and 6 kW peak payload power | Electrical capacity, not mass. Source ↗ |
| Endurance | 100 days between service stops | Supplier-published figure; configuration and operating conditions affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Range | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public data gap; no estimate or neighbouring variant value substituted. Source ↗ |
| Speed | 6 knots mapping speed | Not stated as maximum speed. Source ↗ |
| Sea state / environment | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public data gap; no estimate or neighbouring variant value substituted. Source ↗ |
| Sensors | Radar, EO/IR, AIS and configurable hydrographic/oceanographic payloads | Supplier-published figure; configuration and operating conditions affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Communications / control | Satellite communications with remote mission support | Supplier-published figure; configuration and operating conditions affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Launch / deployment | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public data gap; no estimate or neighbouring variant value substituted. Source ↗ |
Documented milestones
Naval payload demonstration announced
Saildrone reported Surveyor participation in RIMPAC weapons and electronic-sensing trials.
Read the announcement ↗
Publication history
- — Added sourced land and maritime coverage with domain-specific evidence and limitations.
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Follow the evidence
Source types identify who makes the claim. Programme milestones and supplier statements should be read in context.
- Current Surveyor product specifications (opens in a new tab)Manufacturer / programme
- RIMPAC naval payload demonstration, 20 August 2026 (opens in a new tab)Manufacturer / programme