Saronic splashes new autonomous surface vessel Mirage

July 3, 2026, by Fatima Bahtić

US-based autonomous maritime systems company Saronic has launched Mirage, a 15.8-meter autonomous surface vessel (ASV), expanding its portfolio of uncrewed vessels.

Mirage is the third flagship platform in its autonomous vessel lineup, joining the 7.3-meter Corsair and the 54.9-meter Marauder. The company said the vessel progressed from initial design to launch in under a year, with a second hull already in production at its headquarters in Austin, Texas.

Saronic unveils new autonomous surface ships (PHOTOS)

Vessels

The new platform has entered on-water trials at the company’s test facility in Galveston, Texas.

According to Saronic, Mirage is designed for dual-use maritime operations and can operate either autonomously or under remote human supervision through the company’s Echelon command-and-control system.

The vessel has a top speed of more than 35 knots, a range exceeding 2,500 nautical miles (4,630 kilometers), and a payload capacity of 3,500 pounds (about 1,590 kilograms). Saronic emphasized these specifications provide more than double the range and payload capacity of its 7.3-meter Corsair platform.

Mirage is intended to support missions including maritime domain awareness, maritime security, and aerial and surface detection. It uses the same autonomy software stack deployed across Saronic’s existing vessels and features an open architecture designed to integrate government-off-the-shelf (GOTS) and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) payloads, sensors, and command-and-control systems.

Mirage is designed and manufactured at its Austin facility, where hardware and software development are carried out in-house. The company said the site has the capacity to produce hundreds of Mirage vessels annually alongside thousands of Corsair vessels.

The first Mirage hull has been delivered to Saronic’s privately funded test facility in Galveston, where it has begun on-water trials. The testing program is intended to evaluate the vessel’s performance across its operating envelope while Corsair testing continues at the same site.