The paper deals with key features of some unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles used for marine surveillance and reconnaissance missions. Firstly, performances of Zephyr pseudo-satellite, AR5 and the AR3 medium altitude unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are discussed. Then, A18-M and A9-E autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) features are briefly presented. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) approach is applied to position appropriately these UAVs and AUVs in the context of coastal security measures and tasks. The need for further investigation in the field is also revealed. The analysed vehicles are assets within the European Commission’s COMPASS2020 project applied over European seas, but they might be deployed in other sea areas, including South African ones.

Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicles; Zephyr; AR5; AR3; autonomous underwater vehicles; A18-M; A9-E; marine missions; SWOT analysis