Eyes in the Sky

Seasats CEO Mike Flanigan isn’t really interested in building ship-sized drone boats.  “We don't plan to build bigger systems,” Flanigan told Defense One.  Instead, Seasats is all in on small unmanned surface vessels with three variants: Lightfish, which is about 12 feet long; the 20-foot Quickfish; and Heavyfish, the company’s largest offering at 35 feet long. The latter will make its water debut later this year.  “All of our substantial business is on Lightfish, so that's really where 95 percent of our focus is. That's what's supporting Marine Corps, Navy, Special Forces…what we're doing internationally,” he said.  Quickfish, which is in production, serves as a “reactionary tool” that can be used to reposition an asset or intercept a target. And Heavyfish is “essentially a Lightfish, but stretched out, where you don't need an expeditionary force to carry it off a beach with no equipment,” Flanigan said. “You can fit significant amounts of payloads, both subsea and aerial.” The San Diego-based company has long been working with the Navy and other militaries; one of its Lightfish vessels used for surveillance recently spotted a Chinese warship near the Philippines. Last year, a Lightfish traversed the Pacific from San Diego to mainland Japan autonomously.  There’s admittedly a lot of excitement, churn and chatter around larger USVs, but for Flanigan, smaller can be strategically important and avoid some of the pitfalls of building bigger.  “All of these platforms have this long endurance characteristic to them,” he said. “Small USVs have a strategic advantage against large platforms. [Vessels] under 40 feet are much harder to spot. They're much faster to build. You can use them with much less regret. So you actually end up with strategic value over something larger, like over 100 feet.” And now that Navy doctrine and planning is starting to include maritime drones in more detail, there’s a rush to adopt.  “There's some understanding now that's like, oh, you can put vessels that are 12 feet long anywhere in the world,” Flanigan said.  And that’s good for business. “Right now we're seeing huge adoption…definitely, we're in the thick of scaling and hiring” as “people are trying to move faster than each other.” Welcome You’ve reached the Defense Business Brief, where we dig into what the Pentagon buys, who they’re buying from, and why. Send along your tips, feedback, and song recommendations to [email protected]. Check out the Defense Business Brief archive here, and tell your friends to subscribe! Sticker shock: President Donald Trump’s battleship costs keep growing. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the nuclear-powered ship program would cost about $275 billion, with the first battleship costing about $23.4 billion—up significantly from the administration’s original $15.1 billion estimate. That cost would drop to about $18 billion per ship as the fleet of 15 are built through 2056, according to the CBO report released this week. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, ordered the CBO analysis. For comparison: “A new DDG-51 destroyer costs more than $3 billion. Thus, if the average BBGN cost about $18 billion, the Navy could buy five destroyers for the price of one battleship.” But those five destroyers would have higher maintenance and operational costs due to the need for more sailors and running on fossil fuel, the report states.  And any cost savings with respect to nuclear-powered versus fuel are undeterminable at the moment: “Switching to nuclear power would reduce the battleship’s operating costs over time by eliminating the need to purchase fuel. CBO does not have enough information to estimate those potential savings, which would depend on the final design of the ship and the specifications of the conventional propulsion plant it otherwise would have used.” Related: In last week’s earnings call, HII CEO Chris Kastner said the company started initial “design work for the battleship” with the Navy “on a limited basis.”  The CBO report comes as the Pentagon pushes for a $1.5 trillion budget, ramped up weapons production, ambitious new programs like Golden Dome, and existing programs with cost overruns—even amid underlying concerns around transparency.  In the back of my mind: The White House push towards manufacturing is exposing a dearth of workers who can build the nation’s weapons systems—especially at an accelerated pace. Making moves + other news James Rainey, former commanding general of Army Futures Command, is now at Bain Capital.  Hadrian secured a $1.37 billion Series D funding round, pushing its valuation to just under $8 billion. The AI-factory builder plans to expand, adding new factories and production lines for things like munitions and autonomous systems.  Lockheed Martin is looking for domestic critical minerals suppliers. The defense giant signed a memorandum of understanding with NioCorp for the rare-earth metal scandium. Lockheed is also in talks with two companies, Teck Resources and 5N Plus, to supply germanium, Reuters reported.  Ondas landed a $50 million contract for the Army’s Lethal Unmanned Systems (LUS) program. The company’s prime defense contractor, Mistral, received the award as part of a $982 million contract for the program. Ondas also hired David Barnea, former director of Mossad, to be the company’s global president and chairman.  The Navy used a Saildrone USV to aid in a drug bust last year. The Voyager drone has been operating with Fourth Fleet for the past three years to support intelligence gathering and surveillance operations and was recently linked with an $81 million cocaine bust from a ship interdiction in October 2025.   Blue Water Autonomy will join a $40 million IDIQ contract to map the ocean floor with uncrewed surface vessels. The multiyear contract with the Naval Oceanographic Office involves multiple vendors that will compete for task orders. The energy company Fuse inked a research deal with the Nevada National Security Site. “Fuse has built commercial capabilities at the frontier of pulsed power technologies, creating a unique opportunity to advance the field through collaborative research,” Daniel Lowe, NNSS’s chief scientist, said in a news release. “By combining Fuse’s demonstrated hardware with NNSS's technical expertise, we'll be able to evaluate emerging technologies, explore new approaches to dense plasma focus systems and generate insights that benefit both national security missions and the broader fusion community.” Tiberius Aerospace is working with the Army to further develop the company’s “next-generation precision-guided, ramjet-powered 155mm artillery munition,” called Sceptre. The company signed a CRADA, or cooperative research and development agreement, with Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center.  ]]>

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