Officially still a test, Denmark will start fielding unmanned Saildrones to patrol its seas from Jun 2025. Armed with 20 different sensors, cameras and radar, an undisclosed number of Saildrones will be deployed, linking up their data to the Danish Armed Forces by Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system. That, and the fact that the Danish military is not buying the drones but just the gathered information, has raised some critical questions in Denmark.
Saildrones in action
However, the Danish government says that the gathered data will be properly secured so that neither Musk or other foreign actors could access it. The Saildrones can operate without endurance limitations, being equipped with solar panels and batteries to hold the collected power for the sensors on board, while the wind is the main source of propulsion, backed up by a small diesel engine.
Saildrones have deployed by the US Coast Guard, including abroad, since more than four years. | © 2025 Marcel Burger, nordicreporter.com. Featured photo: A Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessel (USV) operates with US Coas Guard’s fast response cutter Robert Goldman (WPC 1142) in the Arabian Gulf in October 2022 (US Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Roland Franklin)