An ocean exploration firm has welcomed a new optionally crewed vessel into service while development continues on USVs for security use in the US and South Korea. A French firm has secured orders for hundreds of mine disposal craft.
Exail has signed a contract worth approximately €40 million ($44.1 million) for the supply of several hundred mine neutralisation drones to several unnamed navies.
This represents the second-largest order for these specific underwater drones in the company's history, following a €60 million agreement reached in 2024.
HJ Heavy Industries, LIG Nex1, and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries have formed a consortium to develop integrated control and autonomous mission systems for combat unmanned surface vehicles (USV).
The group has signed an agreement with the Agency for Defence Development to design and build a verification platform for these technologies.
Textron Systems Corporation has announced the sale of a 21-foot (6.4-metre) uncrewed surface vessel (USV) to the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific.
The vessel will support testing for the Maritime Digital Experimentation Federation (MDEF), an initiative involving Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (AUKUS) to establish interoperability standards for uncrewed platforms.
Marine survey and exploration specialist Ocean Inifinity has taken delivery of the final unit in a series of 86-metre optionally crewed vessels designed to serve as motherships for the company's fleet of unmanned vehicles.
Like her earlier sister Armada 86 01, Armada 86 06 has a steel hull, a length of 85 metres, a beam of 16.4 metres, a minimum draught of five metres, and an open aft deck with a total area of 750 square metres and a payload capacity of 1,050 tons.
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has announced that construction of the prototype for its new family of unmanned surface vessels (USV) has reached 30 per cent completion.
Company executives visited Breaux Brothers Enterprises in Loreauville, Louisiana, to review progress on the hull, outfitting, and the integration of the autonomous control system.
