The Challenge
MarineSky-365: Long-Endurance Maritime Defence UAV
Naval and air forces face escalating costs and operational limitations in maintaining continuous maritime surveillance across vast sea and air domains. Existing manned and short-endurance unmanned systems demand high fuel, manpower, and infrastructure investment while offering limited persistence. MarineSky-365 addresses this challenge by proposing a long-endurance, hybrid-energy UAV capable of autonomous sea and air operations, delivering year-round AI-powered surveillance to enhance maritime security while significantly reducing defense operational costs.
Our Idea
⚠️ Alert: We are in the initial design stage. All defense-related content is conceptual. MarineSky-360 is a next-generation hybrid-energy unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) engineered to operate seamlessly across both maritime and aerial domains, delivering persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities for up to 365 days of continuous operation. Designed to address the growing demand for long-endurance, cost-effective defence platforms, MarineSky-360 represents a significant evolution beyond traditional unmanned systems that are limited by fuel, maintenance cycles, and operational reach. At the core of MarineSky-360 is an advanced hybrid energy architecture that combines renewable energy sources—such as solar harvesting and energy-efficient propulsion—with high-density energy storage and intelligent power management. This enables ultra-long endurance missions while minimizing logistical resupply requirements and dependence on vulnerable forward bases or manned support assets. The platform is optimized for autonomous energy optimization, dynamically adjusting flight profiles, loiter patterns, and sensor usage to maximize operational lifespan. MarineSky-360 integrates a multi-layered AI-powered sensor suite, including radar, sonar, electro-optical, infrared, and acoustic systems. These sensors work collaboratively across air and sea environments to provide 360-degree situational awareness, enabling continuous tracking of surface vessels, submerged threats, low-altitude aerial targets, and anomalous activity across vast operational areas. Onboard artificial intelligence processes data in real time, allowing the system to detect, classify, and prioritize potential threats with minimal human intervention. The platform’s autonomous operational framework allows MarineSky-360 to conduct patrols, adapt to changing mission parameters, and respond to emerging threats independently or as part of a coordinated network. It can operate as a standalone asset or within a larger multi-domain defence ecosystem, sharing data securely with naval vessels, airborne assets, coastal installations, and command centers. This network-centric design enhances decision-making speed and supports layered defence strategies. MarineSky-360 is specifically designed to reduce reliance on manned patrols, lowering operational risk to personnel while significantly cutting long-term costs associated with crewed aircraft, ships, and fixed surveillance infrastructure. Its modular architecture allows for rapid mission reconfiguration, making it suitable for maritime border security, anti-piracy operations, search and rescue support, environmental monitoring, and early-warning defense missions. ⚠️ Alert: We are in the initial design stage. All defense-related content is conceptual.
Ideal Design
A defense company put a machine gun on a UAV
UAV carrying a missile
Our Goal
Achieve Persistent Surveillance: Deliver continuous, year-round (up to 365 days) maritime and aerial surveillance across vast sea and air domains to eliminate coverage gaps
Reduce Defence Operational Costs: Minimize dependence on manned patrols, fuel-intensive platforms, and large infrastructure through autonomous, hybrid-energy operations.
Enhance National Maritime Security: Integrate AI-powered radar, sonar, and multi-domain sensing for real-time threat detection, tracking, and decision support for naval and air forces.
Build a Future-Ready Defence Platform: Develop a resilient, scalable, and sustainable UAV system adaptable to evolving defence missions and next-generation warfare needs.
The Team
Lead Researcher: Space-Z
Arbind.K
Iftaker.A
