Saildrone has opened its European headquarters in Copenhagen to produce unmanned surface vessels and components.
US maritime technology company Saildrone has opened its European headquarters in Copenhagen and selected manufacturers in Norway, Poland, and the Netherlands to produce unmanned surface vessels and components.
The Copenhagen office will oversee mission planning, remote piloting, assembly, servicing, and maintenance, reducing the company’s reliance on US-based facilities.
Production will be divided among three European partners.
Van der Valk Shipyard in the Netherlands will build the first European-made Spectre.
The 52-meter (171-foot) vessel is designed for naval missions including intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, anti-submarine warfare, and strike operations.
Norwegian shipbuilder Umoe Mandal will produce the next generation of the 20-meter (66-foot) Surveyor, an uncrewed vessel used for long-range maritime surveillance, undersea detection, and deep-ocean mapping.
Southern Spars will manufacture its wing sails in Poland, providing wind-powered auxiliary propulsion that extends the vessel’s endurance at sea.
Saildrone said this regional capacity would support operations across the Baltic, North Sea, Atlantic, and Mediterranean.
Missions could include monitoring maritime traffic and national waters, protecting subsea infrastructure, enforcing fisheries regulations, and collecting oceanographic data.
Voyager vessels. Photo: Saildrone Previous Deployment in the Baltic
The expansion builds on Saildrone’s earlier operations in Denmark.
The company established its European subsidiary in April 2025 with support from a $60-million funding round led by the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark before beginning operations in Danish waters two months later.
Under a six-month deployment with the Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation, four 10-meter (33-foot) Voyager vessels supported the Royal Danish Navy in the Baltic Sea.
The unmanned vessels traveled more than 20,000 nautical miles (23,015 miles/37,000 kilometers) during the deployment.
Voyager can operate autonomously for up to three months and use onboard sonar to map the seafloor at depths of up to 300 meters (984 feet).
