U.S. aims to expand use of canoe-sized sea drones to stop illegal border crossings

The Pentagon is considering expanding the use of autonomous surveillance boats in the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico, after the canoe-sized vessels helped detect and deter illegal border crossings and drug trafficking during a pilot programme that began in January, as Reuters reports, according to a U.S. official.

The uncrewed surface vessels are built by the San Diego-based startup Seasats, Reuters reports. The Lightfish model is 11 feet long (about 3.35 metres), weighs 340 pounds (154 kilograms), costs around 240,000 dollars, is powered by solar panels, can be launched from a boat ramp or the bed of a pickup truck, and can stay at sea for months at a time.

The vessels carry electro-optical, infrared and sonar sensors that send real-time tracking data to military software networks — including Palantir Technologies’ Maven Smart System and Anduril’s Fortress platform — alerting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Coast Guard.

According to Reuters, the Pentagon says that in an average month the drones have helped with 452 detections, 350 detentions and 100 turn-backs — cases where crossers give up the crossing after realising they have been detected. Officials want to increase the robotic fleet from the current 10 test vessels by up to 50 more, to ease pressure on Coast Guard ships and crewed aircraft patrolling the border with Mexico; a maritime “radar fence” between Texas and Key West is also being considered, as well as testing in the rougher Pacific waters near San Diego.

“Sea drones are a cost-effective solution to intervene and to put people in the areas where traffickers are now moving,” said M. Roosevelt Ditlevson, deputy assistant secretary of defence for Homeland Defense and Americas Security Affairs. “An aircraft or a ship can go very far and very fast, but the boat can stay there for months — that is the key difference,” said Mike Flanigan, the head of Seasats.

As Reuters reported, other companies such as Saronic, Saildrone and Splash offer similar sea drones. In July, a commercial Lightfish approached a Chinese guided-missile destroyer in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and captured close-up video — proof of how cheap vessels can monitor billion-dollar military assets.