Saildrone Expands European Footprint for a Permanent Operational Presence in Europe

Europe is surrounded by some of the world’s busiest and most strategically important waters. From the Baltic and North Seas to the Atlantic and Mediterranean, governments need to understand what is happening across vast maritime areas—often continuously and in environments where relying exclusively on crewed ships and aircraft is difficult, expensive, or impractical.

Autonomous maritime systems offer another way to maintain that awareness. But supporting persistent operations at European scale requires more than sending vehicles across the Atlantic. It requires local manufacturing capacity, technical expertise, and mission support.

Saildrone is now putting that infrastructure in place through a major expansion of its European footprint, including multiple new manufacturing locations and operations centers. The expansion includes the official opening of Saildrone’s EU headquarters in Copenhagen and three separate build contracts in Norway, Poland, and the Netherlands.

Based in Copenhagen, built for European operations

The expansion marks a significant shift in Saildrone’s European presence. Rather than primarily supporting the region with vehicles and expertise originating elsewhere, Saildrone is establishing the capability to manufacture major platforms and components in Europe, drawing on established maritime and advanced manufacturing expertise across several countries.

“We are proud to announce not one, but three large construction projects. The first European-built 52-meter Saildrone Spectre will be built at Van Der Valk Shipyard in the Netherlands; the next generation of the Saildrone Surveyor will be produced at Umoe Mandal in Norway; and Southern Spars will produce Surveyor wings in Poland,” said Richard Jenkins, Saildrone founder and CEO. “Our EU Headquarters in Copenhagen will facilitate business development, maintenance operations, and piloting activities throughout our European operations.”

These significant investments establish extensive regional capacity to build, deploy, operate, and support Saildrone unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) for European customers.

Supporting maritime missions across Europe

For customers, regional capacity matters beyond where a vehicle is physically constructed. Persistent autonomous operations depend on manufacturing, maintenance, mission management, piloting, logistics, and technical support. Locating more of that capability in Europe brings it closer to the customers and waters it is intended to serve.

“Saildrone USVs have helped governments around the world to improve maritime domain awareness, counter drug trafficking, migrant crossings, and illegal fishing, and protect critical marine infrastructure. We are pleased to bring that proven capability to our European partners facing many of the same challenges,” said Robert Kleist, managing director of Saildrone Europe. “Bringing Saildrone manufacturing and operations to Europe creates an enduring sovereign capability for our European customers.”

Those challenges vary considerably across Europe. Protecting critical infrastructure and monitoring activity in the Baltic are different missions from fisheries enforcement in the Atlantic or tracking maritime activity in the Mediterranean. Across the continent, authorities must maintain awareness of shipping lanes, national borders, fisheries, offshore infrastructure, and other maritime activity.

What these missions share is a need for persistent information across large areas of ocean. Saildrone’s experience around the world has demonstrated how autonomous systems can extend that awareness and support a wide range of security, defense, and ocean intelligence requirements. The growing European footprint creates a regional foundation from which those capabilities can be deployed and supported across the continent.

Building the team behind the operations

To support this new permanent presence, the Copenhagen office will house more than just commercial operations. This new EU headquarters will have technical teams prepared to deploy, operate, and maintain Saildrone’s growing fleet of USVs throughout the region.

The location also connects Saildrone’s future in Europe with centuries of Danish maritime history.

Saildrone is now recruiting for four technical roles based in Copenhagen across Mission Management, Vehicle Assembly & Service, Technical Operations, and the Pilot Team. Together with the three employees already based in Copenhagen, these positions are the next step in building local capability to support Saildrone missions directly from Europe.

Defence Industry Attaché, His Royal Highness Brigadier General Prince Joachim of Denmark officiated the ribbon-cutting ceremony on August 17, joined by Saildrone leadership, employees, Danish stakeholders, and NATO customers. The office is located at the historic Quintus Bastion in Holmen, Copenhagen. Dating to the 17th century, the site once served as the headquarters of the Royal Danish Navy.

“It is fantastic to see Saildrone’s European headquarters located here in this historic naval site in Central Copenhagen,” said Defence Industry Attaché, His Royal Highness Brigadier General Prince Joachim at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “Saildrone brings some of the latest maritime sensing technology to Denmark, which will certainly help protect our shared European waters against the many real threats we face today.”

Proven operations in European waters

The decision to deepen Saildrone’s presence in Europe follows operational experience in the region—not simply expectations about future demand.

Saildrone announced the establishment of a European subsidiary in April 2025, with support from a $60 million funding round led by EIFO – Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, and began operating in Danish waters two months later. Four Saildrone Voyager USVs supported the Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation (DALO), completing a six-month deployment with 92% fleet uptime in harsh weather and sea states while detecting more than 170,000 unique contacts.

Those results demonstrate something a short technology demonstration cannot: whether the complete system—vehicle, communications, mission management, maintenance, and data delivery—can continue providing useful information through months of real-world operations.

One fleet, different missions

The Saildrone fleet includes four classes of USV—the 7-meter Explorer, 10-meter Voyager, 20-meter Surveyor, and 52-meter Spectre—supporting maritime domain awareness, ocean data collection, seafloor mapping, and complex naval missions including persistent anti-submarine warfare, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and strike.

While each class is optimized for different missions and operating environments, they share Saildrone’s proven software architecture, long-endurance design, persistent sensing capabilities, and ability to operate in demanding maritime environments with minimal human intervention.

Together, the portfolio gives customers autonomous capabilities spanning ocean intelligence and maritime domain awareness through increasingly complex naval operations.

With a permanent base in Copenhagen, an expanding local technical team, and Saildrone USVs already proven in European waters, Saildrone is building the capability to support a growing range of missions across the region.

Following the office opening, the Saildrone Europe team will travel to Herning for DALO Industry Days on August 19–20 to meet with Danish and European defense stakeholders and showcase Saildrone USVs.

Interested in joining the Saildrone Europe team? See all open roles based in Copenhagen: saildrone.com/careers/available-jobs