There are a whole bunch of maritime defense tech startups that make operating in the Pacific a big part of their pitch. Not many can say they’re out there now, and already running into the adversary the technology is built to counter.
Earlier this month, a Lightfish unmanned surface vessel (USV) made by San Diego-based startup Seasats ran into a Chinese destroyer operating in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and recorded what the company says is the first such video captured by a US company.
The Lightfish had recently completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, where they also snapped some photos of Chinese warships operating during the over 1,000 nautical mile journey. Seasats founder and CEO Mike Flanigan told Tectonic that this sighting off the coast of the Philippines came “on the tail end of that mission.”
- He added that “the Chinese ship didn’t take any threatening action or anything,” and Seasats “tried to maintain respectful maneuvering and distance.”
- The video was first reported by Reuters.
Talk about validating your technology in an operational environment.
Catch of the day: We’ve covered Seasats before, but as a refresher, the startup has made a splash in the unmanned surface vessel space, especially with their ever-popular flagship Lightfish mini-USV.
- The 11-foot-long, 3-foot-wide lightweight USV is designed primarily for maritime ISR and sensing. Despite its small size and low cost (around $250,000), the solar- and backup generator-powered Lightfish can be at sea for up to six months in Sea State 6+.
- The startup has snagged a joint $24M contract with the Navy and Marines under the APFIT program to accelerate production of the Lightfish in January, which followed an $89M-ceiling SBIR Phase 3 IDIQ with the Navy to deliver the USVs to the Marine Corps last October.
- It’s also completed some pretty insane journeys, including a 7,500-mile trans-Pacific voyage from San Diego to Japan last year. The Lightfish snapped a very up-close and personal picture of a Chinese destroyer northwest of Guam on that trip.
Sea change: Now, it’s no revelation that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintains a pretty controversial presence in the territories of its neighbors in the South China Sea, both with traditional warships and quasi-commercial vessels they’ve increasingly used to project force and form blockades. That’s been true for years.
What the Seasats video shows is that USVs are “no longer just in PowerPoint slides and in controlled experiments,” Flanigan told Tectonic. “At this point, there are global ocean-traveling USVs getting launched from the coasts of many countries, and this is now becoming a part of the fabric of maritime operations.”
For the Chinese warship, we’re guessing it was a real “welcome to the future” moment, and at this point, the PLAN has had a few of those with Seasats.
“You’re kind of sitting on the old way of doing things, looking at the new way of doing things, meeting each other out in the high seas,…kind of both squaring up a little bit, taking a look at each other, and seeing what’s going on,” Flanigan said.
At least one startup is ready for the Davidson window.
