New security USVs have been unveiled in the UK and Poland as development continues on new naval craft slated for operators in Greece and Singapore. A Norwegian offshore specialist meanwhile places orders for new undersea inspection vehicles.
State-run Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) said on Wednesday it signed a deal to sell its BlueWhale autonomous submarine system to the Greek Navy.
IAI did not disclose financial details.
BlueWhale is a large uncrewed underwater vehicle weighing 5.5 tons and can perform a wide range of covert maritime missions, including intelligence-gathering above the sea surface, submarine and underwater target detection, acoustic intelligence collection and searching for and detecting naval mines on the seabed, IAI said.
Singapore technology company ST Engineering has been awarded contracts by the Ministry of Defence of Singapore to deliver a suite of unmanned mine countermeasures (MCM) systems for the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN).
The suite of unmanned MCM systems will comprise a fleet of unmanned surface vessels (USV) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), alongside a command and control (C2) centre, all of which will be engineered to work in tandem to detect and eliminate underwater mines.
Norwegian operator Omega Subsea has awarded local manufacturer Kystdesign a contract for 12 new remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), with deliveries scheduled for 2026.
The companies have also entered into an option agreement for 10 additional ROV systems, with deliveries planned for 2027 and 2028.
The UK's SubSea Craft has unveiled a flexible uncrewed surface vessel designed for operations beyond the traditional reach and risk thresholds of manned teams.
Designed for missions requiring both kinetic and non-kinetic effects, such as persistent ISR or counter UxS, the new USV concept can be equipped with payloads such as active and passive sensors, camera suites or loitering munitions.
Polish defence technology company the WB Group recently unveiled a new unmanned surface vehicle (USV) designed to be used as a technology demonstrator.
The nine-metre USV will be used to test various systems optimised for naval missions such as strike, reconnaissance, and protection of infrastructure.