The service spent considerable time and money in the first half of the 2020s implementing the steps to incorporate unmanned vessels into its fleet. In 2025, we will be watching to see if the service can maintain its momentum in adding unmanned vessels to its fleet and inclusion in real-world operations alongside the manned fleet.

In an effort to resolve that lack of data, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has selected Saildrone—a company with expertise in using uncrewed water-borne drones for research—to map a section of Florida’s coastal waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

As Florida continues to recover from the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, NOAA said the East Bay tech company Saildrone helped in hurricane forecasting.

An Alameda company called Saildrone has been monitoring the hurricane with ocean drones. The drones are designed to take a beating during dangerous weather conditions while gathering critical information for NOAA.

A Bay Area oceanic research company captured stunning footage in the Gulf of Mexico of 28-foot-high waves caused by Hurricane Milton, which was battering Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday evening.

Hurricane-hunting aircraft have been flying into powerful storms for decades, but high-tech drones are doing things that humans can’t.

Unmanned surface vessels (USVs) being used to provide maritime domain awareness in the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility (AOR) are performing well but more time is needed to better utilize them, a Navy official told a Senate panel on Thursday.

The uncrewed research vehicle, dubbed a saildrone, crossed paths with Hurricane Beryl 100 nautical miles south of Puerto Rico on Tuesday morning, according to California-based data company Saildrone Inc. The drone was 95 nautical miles from the eye of the Category 5 storm.

The Maritime Executive spoke with Saildrone CFO Barak Ben-Gal about the carbon savings that his firm delivers for clients. Using unmanned, automated wing-sail propulsion, Saildrone’s USVs can deploy from any dock and transit autonomously to the area of operation and navigate or loiter for a year or more at a time.