Lockheed Martin and Saildrone said on 20 August that they had launched two rounds of the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) from a Surveyor-class Saildrone during RIMPAC, the multinational naval exercise held off Hawaii12. Saildrone describes the shot as the first missile launch from one of its platforms, a claim from the company rather than from the Navy.
Saildrone builds long-endurance uncrewed surface vessels that carry sensors and stay out for months, and the Surveyor is the largest class in that family. A demonstration is not a fielded weapon: nobody has stated a requirement, a customer or a production configuration behind these two rounds, and RIMPAC is where a supplier goes to show a thing works in front of navies rather than to deliver one.
The same company sits in a separate acquisition lane. United States Navy selected Saildrone in May as one of seven companies for its medium uncrewed surface vessel (MUSV) marketplace at-sea demonstrations3. The notice does not say that Surveyor is the vessel Saildrone entered, and the missile shot sat outside the marketplace track. The Navy has separately been buying Saildrone endurance rather than firepower, awarding a $16.3 million task order on 12 August for Voyager patrols in the Caribbean. One supplier is being paid for months at sea in one lane while it proves a kinetic package in another.
