By Rebecca Lurye, Hartford Courant
In a warehouse between the Poquonnock River and Groton’s Army National Guard base, engineers tinker with a vessel worn and weathered from months at sea.
It’s a Wave Glider, an unmanned craft the shape of a surfboard and equipped with artificial intelligence and sonar sensors that trail along 20 feet underwater. Called the Outpost system, this new-age vehicle developed by year-old startup ThayerMahan is an example of the changing industry of undersea warfare, once the exclusive domain of submarine builders like General Dynamics Electric Boat, headquartered just two miles away.
ThayerMahan also represents opportunity for Connecticut, as the state works to boost and organize an undersea warfare ecosystem that’s long lagged behind its robust aerospace community.
The Thames River Innovation Place, an initiative by the state’s innovation support entity CTNext, is forming Connecticut’s first network of parts makers for undersea technologies.