Singapore starts patrolling its territorial waters with MARSEC USVs

The Republic of Singapore Navy has begun patrolling its coastal zone with the help of MARSEC unmanned surface vessels.

Naval News reported on this.

Since 2023, MARSEC vessels have been operated in a test mode with a two-person crew, and since January 2025, they have been fully autonomous.

Indeed, a critical autonomous system aboard the MARSEC is an indigenous Collision Detection and Collision Avoidance (CDCA) navigation system. This system allows the boats to negotiate heavy traffic in the Singapore Strait and deal with quickly changing environmental conditions.

MINDEF said it successfully completed more than 12 million kilometers of simulated distance without a single collision, the equivalent of 26 years of real-world testing.

Additionally, the MARSEC fleet has accumulated 1,000+ hours of autonomous operations at sea without any crew intervention required.

In the future, the Singaporean military plans to adapt drones to perform mine action tasks.

The MARSEC was developed jointly by the Defence Science & Technology Agency, DSO National Laboratories, and ST Electronics. Before ST Electronics integrated systems, Lung Teh reportedly manufactured the hulls in Taiwan.

The drone is 16.9 meters long and has a displacement of 30 tons.

Twin diesel engines coupled to waterjets power the Singaporean USV to speeds exceeding 25 knots and have at least 36 hours of endurance.

Equipment includes a strobe light and siren, searchlight, Rafael Toplite electro-optical sensor, Genasys long-range acoustic device, Hitrole 12.7mm remote weapon station paired with a laser dazzler, and navigation radar.