XV Excalibur, the experimental Extra-Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV) developed with MSubs, has been officially handed over to the Royal Navy.
A U.K. Government press statement made the announcement last week in the wake of its official launch of Atlantic Bastion, the drive to use uncrewed systems alongside conventional naval platforms to provide maritime security in the North Atlantic and protect critical undersea infrastructure (CUI).
Weighing 19 tonnes, 12 metres long and 2.2 metres wide, the XLUUV is the RN’s biggest ever drone system and is thought to be the largest uncrewed sub being trialled by any European navy.
She was developed during Project Cetus, which saw the Submarine Development Agency (SDA) partner with MSubs Ltd to create a test platform to assess military payloads and missions. Her onboard autonomy software was developed by Marine AI.
The drone vessel was named and unveiled at a ceremony at HMNB Devonport in Plymouth in May; in October she was used to test an innovative navigation system, a quantum optical atomic clock developed by UK company Infleqtion.
And in the summer she was operated from half a world away: she was controlled in U.K. waters from a remote operating centre in Australia as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre.
As per last week’s statement: “The SDA’s Autonomy Unit will continue to support the Navy on Excalibur’s test and evaluation programme, which aims to learn more about her capability and how we can effectively introduce autonomy to operational use.
“This year’s progress heralds an exciting future in which autonomous underwater vehicles and nuclear submarines work in unison to provide exceptional underwater capability for the Royal Navy.”
- You can read more details on the U.K. Government website