Buoyed in the Pacific, small sea vessels have traveled autonomously from San Diego shores to locate Chinese ghost fleets in Taiwanese waters.
These small skiffs, created by San Diego-based startup Seasats, are vital to reconnaissance, intelligence, and surveillance missions at sea. In the middle of the ocean, dependable Internet is hard to come by — but these sea satellites work to discreetly relay information from the ocean to people on land.
Seasats built a number of these autonomous sea satellites for the US Navy. Since 2020, the company has raised $40 million from investors and collected $100 million in defense contracts. Now, the startup is expanding with a new Clairemont headquarters and hiring spree as it races to meet growing demand.
Their 12-foot skiff, the Lightfish, can communicate coordinates of ghost fleets, track hurricanes, signal submarines, monitor the status of pipelines, spot smugglers and locate illegal fishing operations.
The boats listen for acoustic messages underwater, then translate that data into radio signals that beam up to satellites and back to commanders on shore.
“Radio waves don’t go through water,” explained Matt Flanigan, CEO and co-founder of Seasats. “Submarines or divers or underwater robots can’t talk to the internet, so you have to have something right at the surface of the ocean.”
Seasats tests and demonstrates boats off the San Diego coast and in Navy exercises in Coronado. “It’s the perfect place,” Flanigan said.