Saronic Corsair

The Saronic Corsair is a 24-foot (7.3-meter) American autonomous surface vessel designed for mass production, fielded by the US Navy's Task Force 59 and, since June 2026, the first uncrewed vessel ever to recover personnel at sea.

Overview

The Corsair is a multi-mission autonomous surface vessel (ASV) built by Saronic Technologies of Austin, Texas. The company lists a payload of 1,000 pounds, a range of more than 1,000 nautical miles and a top speed above 35 knots — manufacturer figures that have not been independently verified. Designed as an attritable, mass-producible drone boat, the Corsair is the platform on which the US Navy has staked one of its fastest recent prototype-to-production transitions, backed by an Other Transaction agreement worth more than $392 million reported by DefenseScoop.

The type's defining moment came on June 8, 2026, when a Corsair operated by 5th Fleet's Task Force 59 recovered the two-man crew of a US Army AH-64 Apache downed near the Strait of Hormuz — the first known personnel recovery at sea by an uncrewed vessel, per Defense One and DefenseScoop. That rescue turned a venture-funded production bet into an operational record.

Development

Saronic was founded in 2022 by former Navy SEAL Dino Mavrookas with Rob Lehman, Vibhav Altekar and Doug Lambert, according to CNBC, which puts the company's total funding at $2.6 billion. The Corsair was unveiled on October 23, 2024 as the third and then-largest model in Saronic's vessel family, after the 6-foot Spyglass and 14-foot Cutlass; the company says it moved from design to a production-ready product in under a year.

Navy money followed quickly. Federal procurement records reviewed by DefenseScoop show Naval Sea Systems Command formalized a $392 million Other Transaction agreement with Saronic on May 16, 2025, running to May 2031, with a first award of nearly $197 million that July. Secretary of the Navy John Phelan publicized the production deal in December 2025, declaring "prototype to production in under 12 months… This is now the standard," per Naval News.

Capital kept pace with contracts: Inside Unmanned Systems reports Saronic closed a $1.75 billion Series D in late March 2026, led by Kleiner Perkins, at a $9.25 billion valuation — up from $4 billion — funding expansion in Louisiana and Texas and a planned new shipyard, Port Alpha.

🔒 The rest of the Saronic Corsair file is for BattlePolicy Pro members. Stop here and you miss what actually matters: the full capability and performance detail, the operational and combat record, how it stacks up head-to-head against its real counterparts, the complete specifications, and our analysts' procurement, supplier and assessment notes. Unlock the full file with BattlePolicy Pro →