HIs Autonomous USV Ran Into Chinese Warships in the Taiwan Strait: Mike Flanigan

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.