Euronaval 2026: Saildrone plans first Spectre Silent Endurance USV hull for 2027

A Saildrone Silent Endurance USV model at Euronaval 2026. (Janes/Neil Dee)

US unmanned surface vehicle (USV) builder Saildrone plans to have the first hull of their Spectre Silent Endurance USV ready for 2027, the company confirmed at the Euronaval 2026 exhibition, held in Paris from 3-6 November.

Speaking to Janes at Euronaval, Robert Kleist, european managing director at Saildrone said that “the contract has been awarded for the first build to Van der Valk shipyard in the Netherlands. The expectation is to have the first hull ready for testing in Q2 or Q3” of 2027. Kleist confirmed that the first hull in production will be the Spectre Silent Endurance variant; “that is primarily designed for persistent, silent anti-submarine warfare (ASW) by carrying either passive arrays or active sonars.”

Spectre is a 52 m USV, weighing 250 tonnes (350 with a full payload), according to Saildrone data. Two variants are available; the wing-equipped Spectre Silent Endurance, and the wingless Spectre Stealth. Spectre can integrate a payload of over 70 tonnes and has a range of 15,000 n miles at 5 kt. Sonar integrations are agnostic, Kleist added, with the company cooperating with several US and European companies. Potential integrations include sonars from Thales, Lockheed Martin, or TKMS/Atlas Elektronik. The integration can be specified by the customer, meaning that if a customer has a specific containerised sonar payload, it can be integrated, Kleist said. Kleist declined to confirm a launch customer for Spectre, but said that Saildrone has acquired a 120 ft platform to test their autonomy stack, sensors, and collision avoidance subsystems before integration on Spectre.