Airborne maritime lidars are widely used for measuring coastal bathymetry. However, these lidars require manned aircraft for operation and are expensive to build and field. Additionally, Alaska’s remoteness, inclement weather, and limited personnel capacity provide unique challenges to data gathering with traditional maritime lidar not seen in the contiguous United States. Droneborne maritime lidar is a promising solution to address these challenges and enhance the data gathering capability in the Arctic.Here, we report on the ongoing development of a droneborne maritime lidar at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF) Geophysical Institute. This lidar is designed to fly on a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) owned by the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aerial System Integration. This UAV has a 25 m/s cruise speed and a flight endurance of 900 km. The current status of the design will be reported, as well as modeling results showing the signal-to-noise ratio and expected depth performance. We also determine the optimal spot diameter for bathymetric profiling in Alaskan waters where this system will be fielded.