ThayerMahan Buys Sea-KIT USV
UK-based uncrewed surface vessel (USV) specialist SEA-KIT on Thursday announced its first USV export sale to ThayerMahan, an autonomous
maritime solutions firm based in Connecticut, USA.
Sea-KIT said that the X-Class USV's combination of extended range, high sea state endurance and payload capacity attracted ThayerMahan initially to the UK-based USV firm.
"The fact that SEA-KIT’s vessels are already commercially proven across the globe also factored heavily in their decision-making process," Sea-KIT said.
Mike Connor, President and CEO at ThayerMahan, said: “We are always striving to improve the efficiency of maritime domain awareness and to keep people safe. SEA-KIT’s flexible payload design enables us to host multiple, sophisticated maritime sensing systems
onboard, which in turn will support ThayerMahan to continue leading the field of remote and autonomous mobile acoustic sensing and sense making.
“We envisage that the introduction of this hi-tech USV to our portfolio will enhance the protection of ports and vessels at sea as well as have a positive impact on illicit trafficking across international borders.”
ThayerMahan is provides remote and autonomous maritime sensing systems for government, industry and academia.
The company plans to use the SEA-KIT USV to support introduction of the technology into government service, as well as for its own commercial activities in US and international waters.
ThayerMahan is set to take delivery of the latest 12m SEA-KIT X-Class design in spring 2023, with plans for it to enter operation over the summer.