IMSC Task Force Completes Maritime Exercise with Saildrone Platform

Two Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) tasked to US 5th Fleet were used alongside US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Delbert D. Black (DDG 119) by IMSC’s operational task force, Coalition Task Force (CTF) Sentinel, to complete exercise Sentinel Shield. 

“We planned this exercise to demonstrate how artificial intelligence and unmanned systems effectively increase CTF Sentinel’s maritime domain awareness to maintain maritime security in Middle Eastern waters,” said Royal Saudi Navy Capt. Alamri Assem, CTF Sentinel’s director of plans.

During the exercise, Saildrone’s unmanned platforms operated in conjunction with USS Delbert D. Black and CTF Sentinel’s command center ashore in Bahrain. The Saildrone Explorers helped locate and identify objects in nearby waters and relayed visual depictions to watchstanders.

The 7-meter (23-foot) Explorer is one of three unmanned platforms designed, manufactured, and operated by Saildrone. Each of the three USV models has been developed to balance mission payload flexibility and endurance. The Explorer is specifically designed for long-duration missions at sea. It carries an optical array with an onboard GPU and machine learning software that fuses the data from all sensors, recognizes targets of interest, and alerts the end-user in near real time to build a shared picture of the surrounding seas.

“Saildrones transmitted information on contacts of interest and our watch officers coordinated with the destroyer for further monitoring,” said US Navy Capt. Brian Granger, CTF Sentinel’s deputy commander.

A Saildrone Explorer from US 5th Fleet participated in a similar exercise, previously completed by CTF Sentinel on Aug. 23 with Royal Bahrain Naval Force ship RBNS Ahmed Al-Fateh (P20) and U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat USCGC Baranof (WPB 1318). The late-summer event was the first time IMSC planners specifically designed a Sentinel Shield exercise to integrate unmanned systems.

IMSC was formed in July 2019 in response to increased threats to freedom of navigation for merchant mariners transiting international waters in the Middle East. IMSC’s operational arm, CTF Sentinel, was established four months later to deter state-sponsored malign activity and reassure the merchant shipping industry in the Bab al-Mandeb and Strait of Hormuz.

IMSC membership currently includes 11 nations: Albania, Bahrain, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States.

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