{"id":322827,"date":"2025-11-28T06:57:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T06:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/a-step-change-tech-firms-battle-for-undersea-dominance-with-submarine-drones-technology-sector\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T06:57:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T06:57:11","slug":"a-step-change-tech-firms-battle-for-undersea-dominance-with-submarine-drones-technology-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=322827","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A step-change\u2019: tech firms battle for undersea dominance with submarine drones | Technology sector"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Flying drones used during the Ukraine war have changed land battle tactics<\/a> for ever. Now the same thing appears to be happening under the sea.<\/p>\n

Navies around the world are racing to add autonomous submarines. The UK\u2019s Royal Navy is planning a fleet of underwater uncrewed vehicles (UUVs) which will, for the first time, take a leading role in tracking submarines and protecting undersea cables and pipelines. Australia has committed to spending $1.7bn (\u00a31.3bn) on \u201cGhost Shark\u201d submarines<\/a> to counter Chinese submarines. The huge US Navy is spending billions on several UUV projects, including one already in use that can be launched from nuclear submarines.<\/p>\n

Autonomous uncrewed submarines represent \u201ca genuine step-change in the underwater battle space\u201d, said Scott Jamieson, the managing director for maritime and land defence solutions at BAE Systems, Britain\u2019s dominant weapons company and builder of its nuclear submarines. The new drones under development would allow navies to \u201cscale up in ways that just weren\u2019t available before\u201d, at \u201ca fraction of the cost of manned submarines\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

The opportunity of a huge new market is pitting big, experienced defence companies, including BAE Systems and the US\u2019s General Dynamics and Boeing against weapons tech startups such as the American firm Anduril \u2013 the maker of the Ghost Shark \u2013 and Germany\u2019s Helsing. The startups claim they can move faster and cheaper.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Anduril\u2019s Ghost Shark is an extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle (XLAUV) that has been ordered by the Royal Australian Navy. <\/span> Photograph: Rodney Braithwaite\/Australian Defence Force\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The struggle for undersea dominance has been almost constant in peacetime and war for most of the last century.<\/p>\n

The first nuclear-powered submarine (the US\u2019s Nautilus, named after Jules Verne\u2019s fictional vessel) was launched in 1954, and nuclear-armed vessels are now the centrepiece of the armed forces of six countries \u2013 the US, Russia, the UK, France, China and India \u2013 while North Korea may have recently become a seventh. That is despite deep controversy over whether the weapons represent value for huge sums of money<\/a>, and whether such a destructive arsenal truly acts as a useful deterrent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those armed forces are playing a constant game of hide and seek on the oceans. In order to avoid detection, the submarines rarely surface: maintenance problems on other vessels recently forced some British submariners to spend a record nine months underwater<\/a>, carrying Trident nuclear missiles that are theoretically ready to strike at any time.<\/p>\n

Tracking Russia\u2019s underwater nuclear arsenal \u2013 which has become quieter in recent years \u2013 is a key focus of the Royal Navy, particularly focusing on the Greenland-Iceland-UK (GIUK) gap, a \u201cchokepoint\u201d that allows Nato allies to monitor Russian movements in the north Atlantic. A weapons executive said the South China Sea was another promising market, as China and its neighbours face off in a tense, long-running territorial dispute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Greenland-Iceland-UK gap graphic<\/a><\/figure>\n

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Underwater drones offer the promise of making it easier to track rivals\u2019 submarines. Some sensors are designed to be dropped by other UUVs to lurk on the seabed for months at a time, according to an executive hoping to sell to the UK.<\/p>\n

The second spur has been the increasing number of apparent attacks on oil and gas pipelines, such as the Nord Stream attack in 2022, for which Germany has identified a Ukrainian suspect<\/a>, and damage in 2023 to the Balticconnector pipeline between Finland and Estonia. Undersea power and internet cables are also crucial to the global economy. An underwater power cable between Finland and Estonia<\/a> was hit last Christmas, two months after two telecommunications cables<\/a> in Swedish waters in the Baltic Sea were cut.<\/p>\n

The UK government last week accused Russia\u2019s Yantar surveillance ship<\/a> of entering British waters to map undersea cables. It said<\/a> the UK had seen a 30% increase in Russian vessels threatening UK waters in the past two years.<\/p>\n

Parliament\u2019s defence select committee has raised concerns over the UK\u2019s vulnerability to undersea sabotage, known as \u201cgrey zone\u201d actions that can cause big disruption but are likely to fall short of acts of war. Damage to the 60 undersea data and energy cables around the British Isles \u201ccould have devastating consequences for the UK\u201d, the committee said.<\/p>\n

Andy Thomis, the chief executive of Cohort, a British manufacturer of military technology including sonar sensors, said the crewed ships, planes and submarines used up to now to track nuclear-armed subs or sabotage vessels were \u201cvery, very capable and very, very expensive\u201d. But, he said, \u201cby combining those with uncrewed vessels, you get the decision-making abilities that humans can give you without putting them in very dangerous proximity\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>BAE has already tested the Herne underwater drone.<\/span> Photograph: BAE Systems<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cohort hopes that some of its towed sensors (named Krait, after a sea snake) could be used on smaller autonomous vessels.<\/p>\n

The newest vessels contain as many as five times more sonar sensors than submarines in service. Lower power requirements are particularly important for smaller, uncrewed vessels, which do not have the luxury of a nuclear reactor on board. Passive sensors \u2013 which do not send out a sonar \u201cping\u201d \u2013 make it harder to detect and destroy.<\/p>\n

The Royal Navy, and the armed forces in general, are not known for getting the latest technology into action quickly. However, Ukraine\u2019s forces have learned that speed and low cost are crucial when it comes to building drones for the air and the sea. For the undersea drones, the Ministry of Defence is trying to learn that lesson, asking for rapid development of tech demonstrators under \u201cProject Cabot\u201d.<\/p>\n

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