The company that lobbied hardest on autonomous surface vessels won. The company with the deepest bench of former appropriations staff lost. The company with the strongest ties to the current administration’s political network also lost.
Any theory of the Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel competition that runs on political influence has to account for all three facts.
This is Part 4 of a six-part examination. It relies on Senate lobbying disclosure filings, OpenSecrets aggregations of Federal Election Commission data, House registration records and reporting by The New York Times and others.
One methodological note up front. Lobbying is legal. Hiring former officials is legal. Campaign contributions are legal. Private meetings with the Navy secretary are legal. None of it constitutes evidence that a procurement decision was corrupt. What the record establishes is access, motive and appearance. Those are worth documenting on their own terms, and worth distinguishing from proof.
Saronic built a lobbying company on purpose
Dino Mavrookas said it himself on a 2025 podcast: “Not only did we have to build the best technology, we also had to build a government lobbying company.” [1]
The filings show what that looked like.
Saronic registered Invariant LLC in 2023. Invariant’s disclosure reports for Saronic describe the work in unusually plain language for a lobbying form: “Educate members of Congress and congressional staff on commercial autonomous surface vessels to enhance maritime awareness, extend reach, and improve survivability to U.S. and allied naval fleets.” A companion line advocates “for funding to support autonomous surface vessels” in the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act and the fiscal 2025 Defense Appropriations Act. Agencies listed: the Senate, the House and the Defense Department. [2]
That is a company lobbying for the creation of a market, two years before the marketplace existed.
The lobbyists on those filings carry relevant credentials. Morgan Vina served as chief of staff for international security affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2019 to 2021, chief of staff at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations before that and senior policy analyst on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier. Jessica Powell was deputy chief of staff and legislative director to Rep. Steve Womack, an Arkansas Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, and previously worked for Rep. French Hill and Sen. Tom Cotton. [2]
Saronic’s registered representation expanded sharply as the money arrived. Senate records show client registrations for Anchor & Arrow Strategies in 2024, Anchor & Arrow LLC in 2026, Washington Council Ernst & Young in 2026, Hither Creek Strategies in 2026 and an in-house Saronic registration in 2026. [3]
OpenSecrets, drawing on Senate Office of Public Records data, puts Saronic’s federal lobbying at $960,000 for the first half of 2026 alone. [3]
Legis1 reported Saronic spent $120,000 in one period educating members on commercial autonomous surface vessels and advocating for fiscal 2026 authorization funding, and that a third-quarter 2025 filing referenced P.L. 119-21, the reconciliation law, as a funding vehicle. [4]
That last detail matters. The reconciliation bill is where the $2.1 billion for MUSV came from. A company was tracking that vehicle in its lobbying disclosures before the marketplace was announced.
The investor network
Saronic’s capital table intersects the administration’s political orbit at several points, as the Times documented.
Andreessen Horowitz, which led the Series B, gave millions to MAGA Inc., the pro-Trump super political action committee. Marc Andreessen advised the Trump transition, and on June 29, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth named him to a new Defense Policy Board. Charles Johnson, the largest shareholder of Franklin Resources, and his wife gave $700,000 to Trump’s 2020 campaign; Franklin and its venture arm invested in Saronic. Point72 Ventures and Trousdale Ventures each have owners who donated $1 million to Trump inaugural committees. Saronic investor Elad Gil has been developing a business with Jared Kushner. [1]
Both fund principals pushed back on the implication. Steve Cohen, whose firm owns Point72’s parent, said: “I don’t interact with the administration as a matter of policy.” Trousdale CEO Phillip Sarofim said: “I do not view political support as a way to help portfolio companies win government business.” [1]
The demo and the label
Two specific facts from the Times reporting are the closest thing to a smoking gun anyone has produced, and neither is conclusive.
The first: in April 2025, at the Sea-Air-Space exposition, Mavrookas met privately with Navy Secretary John Phelan, a Trump friend, and Saronic gave Phelan an on-water Corsair demonstration. Three sources described the meeting. Rivals did not get comparable access. [1]
The second: the fine print of the Navy’s online solicitation document for the second round carried the title “Saronic Corsair Production.” It was fixed quickly. Competitors read it as evidence the Pentagon knew what it wanted before the competition ran. [1]
A file naming artifact is not proof of a rigged competition. It is also exactly the kind of detail that makes losing bidders reach for lawyers.
Saildrone had the deeper bench and lost
If lobbying determined outcomes, Saildrone should have won.
Its Senate filings show in-house lobbying by Tom Alexander, who served as principal associate director at the Office of Management and Budget from June 2020 to January 2021 and before that as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense and acting assistant secretary for special operations and low-intensity conflict. Alexander is the company’s primary government relations executive. [5]
Alongside him: Matthew Womble, a professional staff member on the Senate Appropriations Committee from July 2018 to December 2021, and Sarah Ereio, a research assistant on the House Homeland Security Committee as recently as September 2025. Earlier filings list Ross Branson, a former Commerce Department legislative affairs official and Export-Import Bank senior vice president, and Hannah Morrow, former legislative director to Rep. John Rutherford. [5]
Saildrone also retained A1.9 Strategies, whose lobbyists on the account include Michael Higdon, former chief of staff and legislative director to Rep. Hal Rogers, the longtime House Appropriations chairman, and Jeffrey Scott Nance, who spent 18 years as professional staff on the Senate Appropriations Committee from 2003 to 2021. [6]
Eighteen years on Senate Appropriations is about as deep as the revolving door goes.
The issues cover fiscal 2026 defense authorization and appropriations, Homeland Security appropriations, Interior appropriations and Commerce-Justice-Science, with the Navy, DHS, Commerce and Interior all listed as contacted agencies. OpenSecrets reports $1,288,481 in total Saildrone lobbying in 2025 and $140,000 in the first half of 2026. [7]
The 2025 figure exceeds Saronic’s reported first-half 2026 spend. Saildrone was excluded before at-sea testing.
The contributions, with a caveat
OpenSecrets tracks $35,635 in contributions to federal candidates associated with Saildrone in the 2024 cycle, 84.23% of it to Republicans. The top recipients read like a list of the people who control defense money. [8]
| Recipient | Committee role | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif. | Chair, Defense Appropriations Subcommittee | $11,900 |
| Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. | Armed Services | $3,042 |
| Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. | Armed Services | $2,500 |
| Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla. | Appropriations | $2,500 |
| Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. | Armed Services | $2,250 |
| Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala. | Armed Services | $2,000 |
| Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va. | Armed Services | $1,500 |
| Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. | Chair, Appropriations | $1,250 |
The caveat is important and often ignored. OpenSecrets aggregates contributions from individuals associated with an organization along with any corporate political action committee money, using FEC filings above the $200 reporting threshold. These are not necessarily corporate checks. They may be employees giving as individuals.
Blue Water lobbied from close to day one
The user framing that prompted this series described lobbying “at the very outset.” The record supports a version of that.
Legis1 reported Blue Water Autonomy disclosed $120,000 in lobbying fees focused on “Navy fielding policy.” [4] The House Lobbying Disclosure Office lists Blue Water Autonomy, Inc. as a registered entity. [9]
The primary quarterly report text for Blue Water could not be extracted directly for this reporting, and whether the $120,000 covers one quarter or a year is unconfirmed. That gap should be closed before anyone treats the figure as definitive.
More striking than the money is the advisory board. Blue Water’s advisors include retired Rear Adm. Tom Anderson, the former head of Program Executive Office Ships; retired Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, former commander of Naval Surface Forces Pacific; Michael Stewart, former director of the Navy’s Disruptive Capabilities Office and executive director of the Unmanned Task Force; and Stephen Rodriguez, chairman of Blue Forge Alliance and an operating partner at DCVC. [10]
Stewart ran the Unmanned Task Force, the organizational predecessor to the office that ran this competition. Anderson ran the office that builds Navy ships.
That is not a lobbying registration. It is something closer to institutional knowledge purchased directly. And it did not work.
In January 2026 the company posted a job for a head of government relations for congressional affairs, base salary $190,000 to $249,000, explicitly requiring willingness to register as a lobbyist. [11]
Then, on June 29, 2026, the same day it filed suit, co-founder Austin Gray emailed legislators. The government, he wrote, is “encouraging industry-driven solutions, private capital investment, and rapid capability delivery — but the Navy’s execution” of the program rejects those things. [1]
Litigation and legislative pressure, launched the same day.
Anduril is the case against the simple theory
Anduril has the political connections. Its investors include 1789 Capital, where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner, and Andreessen Horowitz. The Times called it one of the best-connected firms in Trump-era Washington. [1]
Its lobbying is explicit about maritime. Anduril’s third-quarter 2025 Senate filing lists unmanned and autonomous systems with maritime named in the defense issue area, covering the fiscal 2026 NDAA, defense appropriations, Homeland Security appropriations and the intelligence authorization. Its in-house lobbyists include Josh Altman, a former national security adviser and military legislative assistant to Sen. Jon Ossoff who also served as policy team chief in the Defense Department’s legislative affairs office. [12]
OpenSecrets puts Anduril’s first-half 2026 lobbying at $1.01 million, the highest of any company in this competitive set. [13]
Anduril did not advance as a named prime.
It gets stranger. During MASC, Anduril was greenlit on a smaller craft while its bid on the largest craft was selected but not funded. The company counter-proposed paying for its own test boat if allowed into sea trials, and never received a response. The marketplace then adopted the industry-funded model Anduril had asked for. Anduril lost anyway. [1]
The Times was careful here: “It is not clear how much sway, if any, Anduril’s proposal had.” [1]
And Anduril may not have lost at all in the way the list suggests. It announced an Edison Chouest partnership in April 2026. Edison Chouest does business as Galliano Marine Services, which the Navy selected for two MUSV concepts without naming Anduril. [14] [15]
Nobody in the Navy has publicly explained that relationship.
The other winners’ politics
Two more selected companies have documented political connections.
Havoc AI, the Providence, Rhode Island, autonomy company teamed with PacMar Technologies, counts Trousdale Ventures among its investors. Devin Nunes, the former Republican congressman who ran Trump Media and now chairs the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, sits on Havoc’s board. CEO Paul Lwin told the Times his investors networked and flagged contract opportunities, and that Nunes provides “advice and direction” but did not intervene with the White House or Navy. “And we would never ask,” he said. [1]
Gary Chouest, who runs the Edison Chouest and Galliano operation, and his wife have given at least $925,000 to Trump or supporting groups since 2017, per campaign filings reviewed by the Times. Chouest did not respond to the paper. [1]
Other significant uncrewed-vessel lobbyists never made the list at all. Legis1 reported Maritime Tactical Systems, maker of the MANTAS family, spent more than $310,000 across multiple quarters targeting Navy procurement and research funding. SeaSatellites reported $120,000 focused on Marine Corps and Coast Guard funding. Hydronalix reported $40,000. None of the three appear among the seven selectees. [4]
What Congress actually did
The congressional role in this story is less about individual intervention than about structure.
Four instruments created the competition. Executive Order 14265, signed April 9, 2025, directed acquisition speed and workforce reform, producing the portfolio acquisition executive construct. Section 130 of the fiscal 2026 NDAA required these vessels be purpose-built unmanned platforms. Section 122 of the same act imposed a 720-hour continuous propulsion and electrical demonstration before delivery acceptance and capped financing payments until certification. And P.L. 119-21, the 2025 reconciliation law, provided roughly $2.1 billion for MUSV out of nearly $5 billion for Navy unmanned programs. [16] [17] [1]
This is the answer to the question of what federal law shaped the competition from the outset. It is not the Jones Act. It is an executive order on acquisition reform, two NDAA provisions written into statute before the solicitation dropped and a reconciliation appropriation that made the whole thing worth fighting over.
Congress has also been pushing back on the Navy’s haste. Breaking Defense reported the House Armed Services Committee’s fiscal 2027 chairman’s mark would require the Navy to verify concept-of-operations development before accepting a USV, and to produce a USV integration strategy for fleet and joint maritime operations. [18]
Legis1 reported a Senate Armed Services hearing on maritime uncrewed vessels set for April 21, 2026, and identified Sens. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Katie Britt of Alabama, Susan Collins of Maine, Gary Peters of Michigan and Roger Wicker of Mississippi as active on shipbuilding and maritime workforce issues. [4]
Note the geography. Alaska, Alabama, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi. Every one of those senators has a shipyard interest. The industrial base question in Part 6 is also a Senate map.
The broader pattern
The Times placed the competition in a wider context that deserves attention. ProPublica reported a $620 million loan to a small North Carolina defense company whose investors include 1789 Capital, made after a White House official intervened with the Pentagon. Trump family members and allies have taken stakes in investment firms targeting defense. [1]
Hunter Stires, who served as the Navy secretary’s maritime strategist until 2025, offered the sharpest formulation:
“While politics has always been a factor in defense procurement, what we are seeing in the way companies are navigating the second Trump administration is very different from what we have seen in the past.” [1]
What the record supports
Set the pieces side by side and a defensible reading emerges.
| Company | Lobbying spend | Political network | MUSV outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saronic | $960,000, first half 2026 | Extensive, plus documented SECNAV access | Selected |
| Anduril | $1.01 million, first half 2026 | Extensive | Not selected as prime |
| Saildrone | $1.29 million in 2025 | Deep appropriations revolving door | Not selected |
| Blue Water | About $120,000 reported | Former Navy acquisition advisors | Not selected |
| Havoc AI, via PacMar | Not documented here | Trousdale, Nunes board seat | Selected |
| Galliano, Edison Chouest | Not documented here | $925,000-plus in Trump-aligned giving | Selected, two concepts |
The correlation between lobbying spend and outcome is weak to nonexistent. Anduril outspent Saronic and lost. Saildrone outspent Saronic in 2025 and lost.
The correlation with a different variable is stronger: the selected companies include those with existing production, existing hulls or established shipyard capacity, plus at least two with investor or board ties to the current administration’s political network. That is not proof of favoritism. It is a pattern that requires an innocent explanation, and the Navy has not provided a detailed one.
The stronger critique remains the one from Parts 1 and 3. A competition with undefined terms, no clarifications and pass-fail scoring gives an agency enormous discretion. Discretion plus documented access plus a solicitation label reading “Saronic Corsair Production” produces a legitimacy problem regardless of whether any individual evaluator did anything wrong.
Part 5 examines the founder at the center of the Blue Water case, and what his approach reveals about how defense startups mistake public posture for customer trust.
References
- The New York Times, How a Promising Navy Drone Boat Program Got Mired in Politics
- U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure, Invariant LLC filing for Saronic
- OpenSecrets, Saronic lobbying profile
- Legis1, Naval Autonomous Systems: Congress Shapes the Future
- U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure, Saildrone in-house filing
- U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure, A1.9 Strategies filing for Saildrone
- OpenSecrets, Saildrone lobbying profile
- OpenSecrets, Saildrone contribution recipients
- U.S. House Lobbying Disclosure, Blue Water Autonomy registration
- Blue Water Autonomy, Advisors
- Public Affairs Council, Head of Government Relations posting
- U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure, Anduril Q3 2025 filing
- OpenSecrets, Anduril lobbying profile
- USNI News, HII, Saronic Included in First MUSV Navy Prototype Tests
- Anduril, Scaling Autonomous Surface Vessels
- The White House, Executive Order 14265
- FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act, P.L. 119-60
- Breaking Defense, Theodore Roosevelt Seahawk deployment
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