USCG tests PowerBuoy surveillance

The U.S. Coast Guard has put an autonomous PowerBuoy in the water off San Diego to keep watch longer without keeping a cutter on station. (x.com) The Coast Guard said the buoy is its first use of a PowerBuoy for maritime domain awareness and border security near the Southwest maritime border. Sector San Diego’s area includes 120 miles of coastline and the U.S.-Mexico maritime boundary. (x.com) (pacificarea.uscg.mil) A PowerBuoy is a moored platform that stays at sea and runs sensors and communications gear on its own. Ocean Power Technologies says its system can host radar, Automatic Identification System receivers, and cameras while sending data back to shore in real time. (oceanpowertechnologies.com 1) (oceanpowertechnologies.com 2) Ocean Power Technologies said on February 24, 2026, that it received a U.S. Coast Guard order worth about $1.5 million to install and deploy operational buoy systems. The company said on March 24, 2026, that it had shipped the first PowerBuoy under a U.S. homeland security contract. (investors.oceanpowertechnologies.com) (oceanpowertechnologies.com) The Coast Guard has been adding assets along the Southern California border as migrant smuggling and other illicit traffic shifted back into the maritime corridor. In April 2025, the service said it was increasing operational presence near the southwest border between the United States and Mexico. (news.uscg.mil) San Diego is one of the Coast Guard’s busiest border sectors. In August 2024, the service said a panga-style vessel carrying 14 people was intercepted about 20 miles west of Point Loma after U.S. Customs and Border Protection alerted the Joint Harbor Operations Center. (news.uscg.mil) Ocean Power Technologies markets the buoy as a long-dwell platform that can stay deployed for years with infrequent maintenance. Its current product material says some models are designed around roughly three-year maintenance intervals and can use solar, wind, and, on some versions, wave energy to keep batteries charged offshore. (oceanpowertechnologies.com 1) (oceanpowertechnologies.com 2) The company has also been pitching the buoy as part of a wider surveillance network, with onboard software it calls Merrows to fuse radar, vessel transponder, and camera feeds. That points to a Coast Guard test that is not just about one buoy off San Diego, but about whether fixed, unmanned sensors can fill gaps between patrols. (oceanpowertechnologies.com 1) (oceanpowertechnologies.com 2)