A Visit From Palau: President Whipps on Patrolling a Maritime Domain the Size of Texas

Hearing Palau's Needs From Its President, in Our Hangar and in Our Aircraft, Helps Us Understand the Needs for Autonomy in the Pacific.

Earlier this year, we hosted President Surangel Whipps Jr. of the Republic of Palau and Ambassador Hersey Kyota at our test flight facility in Rhode Island. During the visit, President Whipps toured our hangar, flew in one of our aircraft, and spoke with our team about the challenge of monitoring Palau's waters.

Palau is a nation of roughly 18,000 people spread across an archipelago in the western Pacific. Its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the ocean territory it’s responsible for monitoring and protecting, is comparable in size to the state of Texas, including more than 340 islands. "As you know, it is difficult to protect an area that size with one patrol boat," President Whipps said. "Because of our location, we're always going to be vulnerable or a target. We believe that we need to be prepared."

"We're looking for ways that we can not only protect our EEZ, but also look at ways that we can transport people, transport cargo in a more efficient way," he said. President Whipps also explained that he wants Palau to be a test case for autonomous aviation in the Pacific. That covers surveillance of its waters and cargo delivery to outer islands that today depend on a two-aircraft missionary air service.

The United States holds primary responsibility for Palau's security under the Compact of Free Association. President Whipps described Palau's maritime awareness as a shared interest:

"We're a believer that presence is deterrence, and having the capability of an autonomous aircraft that's regularly patrolling our EEZ so that we know what is happening within our waters, I think, is critical to the defense and security of the United States, but also the critical defense and security of Palau."

Sustaining that kind of regular coverage far from shore is a challenge shared well beyond Palau, and one we look at more closely in Eyes Over Open Water: How Autonomy Is Extending Time at Sea.

"It's important that we have partners, especially partners that we share the same values: freedom and democracy,” he added “and most importantly, to ensure that we have a free and open Indo-Pacific. And to do that, we have to be prepared and able to defend."

For Merlin Founder and CEO Matt George, the visit was a chance to learn directly from a partner nation. "By working with nations like Palau, we can understand how to deliver autonomy into the Pacific in a way that solves not just the present challenges that nations like Palau have, but also design the future of autonomy that can connect and protect the Pacific," he said. "Only through those conversations can we build products that ultimately serve the needs of Palau, but also of other similar nations in the Pacific."

George also noted that President Whipps did more than tour the facility. "He was also able to go fly in our aircraft and truly understand how we're building autonomy and what the future of that autonomy could look like for places like Palau."

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This post contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995; actual results may differ materially from those anticipated, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements, which speak only as of the date of this post and are subject to the risks and uncertainties described under "Risk Factors" in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Prospectus dated May 13, 2026, filed with the SEC on May 13, 2026, and our subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, which are available from the SEC. Except as required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements after the date of this post.