Announced by Secretary of the Navy John. C Phelan on December 8th, Saronic, a Texas based autonomous vessel manufacturer has scored a several hundred million dollar contract for production of it’s Corsair ASV (Autonomous Surface Vessel).
The contract announced by the Secretary of the Navy on X, stipulates that Saronic will receive $200 million dollars of the total amount available immediately. Saronic’s awarded production contract is part of a larger initiative to rapidly build production capability in the U.S for a variety of A/USVs.
The Corsair ASV is part of Saronic’s midsize offerings, with the capability to carry a 1,000lbs payload over 1,000 nautical miles with autonomous guidance. The Corsair itself is 24 feet long and features a listed top speed of +35 knots, with rapidly scalable production and a multiple available mission sets.
In the Secretary of the Navy’s statement he additionally revealed that the Corsair program had made it from the prototyping stage to production less than 12 months. This comes as efforts to rapidly scale non-traditional means of increasing ship-building capacity have reached full swing across the United States, meant to speed up what has typically been a lengthy process of getting tonnage in the water.
“Prototype to production in under 12 months. The Saronic OTA proves how we’ll build a hybrid manned–unmanned Fleet: open competition, real contracts, real hardware for Sailors and Marines not slides. This is now the standard.”
– Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan in a statement on X
Saronic’s Offerings
Saronic currently offers a suite of autonomous vessels ranging from Spyglass, a six foot long collaborative ASV for more dynamic battlefield applications, all the way to the Marauder, a 180 foot long logistics focused ASV. The total amount of ASVs on offer have reached 8, varying in size, capability and purpose. All of Saronic’s vessels leverage their unified software and autonomy stack, enabling rapid integration and the easy application of past experience.
Saronic’s flagship offering is in the shape of their largest ASV, the Marauder, which boasts additional features such as the ability to transit a distance of 4,100 nautical miles at it’s maximum load of 150 metric tonnes. At the 25 tonne base load, the Marauder can travel an additional 1,300 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 12 knots, with the option for a 25 knot sprint speed. Marauder production has been backed by a $300 million dollar Saronic investment in their Louisiana based Gulf shipyard.
Mirage and Cipher are the newest amongst Saronic’s larger and longer ranged offerings, with a range of 2,000 and 3,000 nautical miles as well as a carrying capacity of 2,000 and 10,000lbs respectively. Saronic’s smaller offerings in the shape of Corsair, Spyglass, and the 14 foot cutlass are focused around the deployment of other unmanned assets, intelligence gathering, and more flexible deploy-ability.
Check out our recent interview with Saronic recorded during Indo Pacific 2025 in Australia:
