Vessel & Vehicle Announcements

ASENAV to Build Hybrid Research Vessel for UC San Diego

Chile will export its first floating laboratory to the United States after ASENAV signed a contract to build a hybrid vessel dedicated to ocean research for the University California of San Diego.

From its home port in San Diego, California, the 38-meter vessel will serve hundreds of scientists and students each year along the Eastern Pacific coast as part of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet. The NB 201 project, designed by U.S.-based naval architecture firm Glosten, will replace Research Vessel Robert Gordon Sproul, the current coastal research vessel being retired after nearly four decades of service.

The electrically propelled vessel will carry up to 20 people (crew, students and scientists) and will serve missions for Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The project has an estimated timeline of 24 months and covers a comprehensive scope of design, construction, testing, and trials through to delivery of the vessel, projected for July 2028.

The ship will be capable of operating more than 200 days per year at sea to fulfill operations demanding the highest scientific, acoustic, and environmental standards.

The vessel will be designated in the U.S. Academic Research Fleet as a Coastal Class Research Vessel. It will feature a monohull design, with a length of 38.0 meters, beam of 10.2 meters, and draft of 3.0 meters, propelled by dual azimuthing L-Drive stern thrusters and a bow thruster. The propulsion system will allow the ship to maintain control over its speed and position. During expeditions, the vessel will efficiently operate at various working speeds: transit at 10 knots, survey at 8 knots, towing at 2 knots, and maintaining exact positioning using dynamic positioning at low or no speed.

The vessel is designed to support up to 55 missions per year over 200 days at sea, operating 24 hours per day.

Intended as a general-purpose research vessel, the ship will include many different capabilities to support scientific missions in biology, chemistry, geology, geophysics and physical oceanography:

• A suite of built-in acoustic systems will support seafloor mapping using multibeam and sub-bottom acoustic systems, as well as mapping ocean currents beneath the ship using Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers and imaging fish and other biomass in the water column using multi-frequency midwater imaging sonars.

• Using its dynamic positioning capability, the ship will be able to hold station for long periods while using its winches, crane and A-Frame to lower instruments as deep as 4,000 meters, or to conduct Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) deployments to the seafloor.

• An Ultra-Short Baseline (USBL) acoustic navigation system will allow the ship to deploy and track autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs).

• An onboard computer network and communications systems will enable scientists and students to connect with their instruments onboard and to the internet using satellite communications networks.

A key technical aspect of the project will be compliance with performance guarantees related to speed, range, power quality, airborne noise, exhaust emissions, and low underwater radiated noise at survey speeds between 1 and 10 knots, a condition of particular importance to avoid interference with scientific measurements and the marine environment. Glosten's subsidiary, Noise Control Engineering, LLC, will lead the vessel's airborne and underwater noise analysis to help ensure the acoustic performance requirements are achieved.

The vessel will feature hybrid battery propulsion and low-emission certifications, incorporating solutions designed to reduce the environmental impact of its operations. The design further includes a mandatory UPS system for critical science, navigation, and mission loads, ensuring operational continuity for the vessel's essential systems.

Integration into the U.S. Academic Research Fleet will require compliance with a range of mandatory technical standards, including classification requirements of the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), regulations of the United States Coast Guard (USCG), and compliance with applicable federal, state, and local regulations in the United States.

ACUA Ocean, Teledyne FLIR Defense Complete UAS, USV Demos

ACUA Ocean and Teledyne FLIR Defense have successfully completed two days of demonstrations for the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and offshore industry partners, having been awarded funding by UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) to conduct a joint demonstration of an integrated tethered uncrewed aerial system (T-UAS) and uncrewed surface vessel (USV) capability.

The program saw Teledyne FLIR’s SkyCarrier UAS platform autonomously launch a SkyRanger R70 drone, operated remotely from ACUA Ocean’s USV Pioneer. Pioneer is the UK’s first Lloyd’s Register-certified remotely operated uncrewed vessel to deliver a persistent, long-endurance maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform for the Royal Navy and wider UK defense customers.

In tethered configuration, the SkyRanger R70 was launched from its SkyCarrier container and operated from the Pioneer via a managed power and data tether, removing reliance on onboard battery endurance and enabling persistent, continuous aerial surveillance directly slaved to the USV’s position.

SkyCarrier enables fully autonomous, on-the-move drone deployment from land vehicles, maritime vessels, or fixed sites. SkyCarrier’s container fully protects the drone when closed and opens to unfold an articulating launch and landing pad, allowing drones to autonomously take off and return, even while in motion or on uneven terrain. The SkyRanger R70’s multiple embedded NVIDIA processors provide artificial intelligence capability at the edge, including object detection and classification, while four dedicated computer vision cameras enable autonomous operations. A long-range, high-resolution stabilized EO/IR payload suite delivers Group 2 ISR performance in a Group 1 UAS platform.

The UKDI-funded demonstrator validated the technical integration of the T-UAS with the Pioneer modular payload architecture and proved the combined system’s operational performance in open-ocean sea states, ahead of further development and potential commercial deployment as scale.

Singapore Navy Deploys RTsys COMET-MCM AUVs for Mine Warfare

RTsys Underwater Technologies, the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) announced the operational deployment of several COMET-MCM autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), designed to detect and identify naval mines. This deployment marks a milestone in the modernization of the Singapore Navy's mine countermeasures capabilities.

The Singapore Strait is one of the world's most strategic maritime routes. Nearly 150,000 ships pass through it each year (three times more than the Strait of Hormuz), making this area a vital link in international trade. Any disruption caused by an underwater threat, particularly the presence of mines, could have major consequences for maritime safety and economic trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

To address this challenge, the RSN now relies on several COMET-MCM systems, developed by RTsys Underwater Technologies in partnership with the DSTA. These autonomous underwater vehicles are deployed during the initial stages of mine countermeasures operations to detect, locate, and identify suspicious objects on the seafloor with a very high degree of precision.

Equipped with side scan sonar, the COMET-MCM is capable of operating autonomously for more than twelve hours and mapping vast underwater areas with remarkable positioning accuracy.

Preprogrammed before launch, these AUVs reduce the workload on operators while speeding up reconnaissance operations and limiting crew exposure to hazardous areas.

The data collected by the COMET-MCM complements that recovered from the sonar mounted on minehunters to inform the various phases of the mission: detection, classification, identification, and neutralization. When a contact is detected, it can be confirmed using remotely operated systems or by divers equipped with specialized handheld sonar, such as the RTsys' SONADIVE.

Hike Metal Products, HydroSurv Partner to Deploy USV Platforms Across US, Canada

Hike Metal Products Limited has signed a Technology Licensing Agreement with HydroSurv, establishing a partnership that will see Hike Metal manufacture, market and support HydroSurv’s portfolio of Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) platforms across Canada and the United States.

The agreement marks another step in HydroSurv’s international deployment of commercially proven Rapid Environmental Assessment Vessel (REAV) technology, through an established North American manufacturing partner.

As demand for uncrewed maritime technology continues to grow across North America, the partnership enables Hike Metal to extend that expertise into an increasingly important sector. By combining Hike Metal's manufacturing capability and experience in delivering specialist vessels with HydroSurv's USV platforms, the partnership brings together complementary strengths to deliver locally manufactured and supported uncrewed vessel solutions for the North American market.

The partnership is expected to support a range of organizations across Canada and the United States, including police agencies, Ministries of Natural Resources, research organizations, hydrographic survey companies and other government marine operators. As demand grows for safer, more efficient and environmentally responsible methods of undertaking hydrographic and geophysical survey, subsea asset inspection, oceanographic observation and environmental monitoring, the REAV platform provides a range of small and midsize platform solutions backed by local manufacture and regional support.

Hike Metal will offer a range of platform solutions from 2.5 to 6m length, including the battery-electric REAV-28 for inland and shelter water survey operations, where portability and ease of launch and recovery is important for day-work operations in ports, harbors and inland water worksites. The battery-hybrid REAV-47 is a nearshore survey platform ideally suited to multi-day landfall survey operations across a spectrum of hydrographic, geophysical and oceanographic taskings. For longer endurance coastal survey operations, Hike will also offer the REAV-60 with a specific focus on large payloads including ROV and towed array systems.

Ray Systems Partners with NOC to Further Fin-Based AUVs

Ray Systems, a UK bio-inspired robotics company, announced a collaboration with the National Oceanography Centre (NOC). Through membership of the NOC Innovation Hub in Southampton, Ray Systems gains access to engineering and testing facilities, scientific expertise and a network across the ocean and maritime sectors, with the intention of transitioning the ocean economy from propellers to fins.

Ray Systems develops fin-based autonomous underwater vehicles built around two technologies: RayDrive, its bio-inspired oscillating-fin propulsion system, and NelsonOS, an autonomy operating system co-designed with the platform for the GPS-denied, comms-denied conditions of the underwater world

The collaboration gives Ray Systems a home within the UK's community for marine autonomous systems. The NOC Innovation Hub, a purpose-built facility launched in 2025 following a USD$268,000 (£200,000) investment, brings together researchers, businesses and entrepreneurs, and offers members access to NOC's testing environments, oceanographic data and specialist teams. For Ray Systems, that means faster iteration on RayDrive and NelsonOS, closer proximity to the scientists and operators who understand the ocean best, and a direct line into the partnerships that will help scale bio-inspired propulsion across the blue economy.