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HIs Autonomous USV Ran Into Chinese Warships in the Taiwan Strait: Mike Flanigan
Description
Mike Flanigan is co-founder and CEO of Seasats, a San Diego-based company building long-range autonomous surface vessels for commercial and defense missions. This is his second time on Drone Wars — and he came back with stories.
We get into how Seasats recently sailed a Lightfish autonomous boat through the Taiwan Strait and found themselves tracking Chinese Navy warships along the way. Mike breaks down the asymmetry: a $100M+ corvette with 70+ sailors versus a sub-$1M boat operated remotely from San Diego.
We also cover the state of the USV industry, the debate over large vs. small autonomous vessels, operating in the Indo-Pacific, their joint Navy/Marine Corps APFIT contract win, and how Seasats is using AI to cut a six-hour quality check down to 20 minutes.
Topics:
- Why San Diego is becoming the maritime autonomy capital of the U.S.
- Lightfish, Quickfish, Heavyfish — Seasats' product lineup
- Taiwan Strait transit & Chinese Navy encounter
- The real numbers behind U.S. USV production
- Large unmanned surface vessels: hype or hope?
- Mines in the Strait of Hormuz
- APFIT: joint Navy & Marine Corps contract win
- AI in physical manufacturing
About Drone Wars
The Drone Wars Podcast serves the warfighters, builders and innovators who all share a common goal: get the best tech into the hands of those on the frontlines.
Dan Magy, Co-Founder and CEO of Firestorm Labs, explores all things defense and geopolitics with experts in the industry.