Saronic Tapped for Pivotal DARPA Autonomous Vessel Program

Saronic was selected to support the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Pulling Guard program, an effort to develop and demonstrate semi-autonomous escort systems designed to enhance the survivability of unarmed logistics vessels. Saronic will participate in the program under Focus Area 2 (FA2), where it will focus on designing an autonomy-enabled, modular vessel to address maritime security challenges.

DARPA’s Pulling Guard program aims to develop semi-autonomous overwatch and escort capabilities, collectively referred to as the Pulling Guard system. This system aims to provide a flexible, unmanned maritime platform capable of integrating existing sensors and effectors to provide protection and support for logistics vessels.

Leveraging Saronic’s existing autonomy expertise, the company will work on the design and development of the Pulling Guard platform, focusing on the creation of a modular, autonomy-enabled vessel with standardized physical and digital interfaces to support integration with a variety of sensors and effectors, covering both commercial and defense uses.

With modularity at both the software and hardware level, the platform’s design should enable rapid iteration to address evolving threats and regulations. In alignment with DARPA’s iterative development model, Saronic will focus on contributing to a collaborative design cycle that matures capabilities from concept through delivery, enabling rapid integration, testing, and refinement.