ROOT / DEFENSE // AUTONOMOUS VESSELS
// Defense · decoded · deep-research pass
Autonomous Vessels, decoded.
Uncrewed surface and undersea craft, by endurance and range.
CURATED INDEX◊ confidence: Medium
// the signal · what the data says
Uncrewed maritime systems are a fast-growing defense category: Saildrone's solar craft patrol for a year, Anduril's Ghost Shark and Dive-XL push large autonomous undersea vehicles, and the US Navy's Task Force 59 pioneered fleets of them. Endurance and range, not speed, define their surveillance value.
// comparison · every entry, benchmarked & annotated
| Name | Maker | Endurance (days) | Range (nmi) | Payload (t) | Country |
|---|
| Saildrone Surveyor | Saildrone | 365 | 20000 | 0.1 | USA |
| ◊ Year-long, solar/wind, ISR |
| Orca XLUUV | Boeing | 180 | 6500 | 8 | USA |
| ◊ Large undersea, mine-laying |
| Sea Hunter | Navy/Leidos | 90 | 10000 | 5 | USA |
| ◊ ASW medium USV |
| Ghost Shark | Anduril | 30 | 1000 | 3 | Australia |
| ◊ XL-UUV, co-developed with RAN |
| Manta | Anduril | 30 | 2000 | 3 | USA |
| ◊ Modular AUV |
// leaderboard · Endurance (days)
01Saildrone Surveyor365
02Orca XLUUV180
03Sea Hunter90
04Ghost Shark30
05Manta30
// sources & where to verify
// full index, per-field sourcing & CSV export [ AUTHENTICATE → ]
◊ Deep-research pass, mid-2026. Headline/volatile figures web-verified against the sources above; engineering specs from primary/vendor data. Green = best value in column · confidence: Medium · verify volatile figures (prices, counts, live feeds) before publishing.