Saildrone rolls out new manufacturing hubs across Norway, Poland and the Netherlands

Saildrone disclosed plans to expand its manufacturing footprint into Europe, locating the construction of the 170-foot Spectre at the Van Der Valk Shipyard in the Netherlands and the 65-foot Surveyor at Umoe Mandal in Norway, while Polish firm Southern Spars will produce the Surveyor’s wings. The firm also opened its EU headquarters in Copenhagen, housed in the historic Qunitus Bastion, and staffed it with technical crews ready to operate and maintain the fleet locally.

Managing director Robert Kleist said the expansion will provide European partners with a permanent, sovereign capability for maritime domain awareness. Danish Defense Industry Attache Prince Joachim praised the addition of advanced sensing technology to Denmark’s waters. The move follows a $60 million investment from Denmark’s Export and Investment Fund and a recent deployment by the Danish Ministry of Defense that recorded high uptime and thousands of contacts.