German company Euroatlas in partnership with EvoLogics announced at UDT 2025 in Oslo that they successfully completed the first propulsion tests on their GreyShark AUV prototype.
The GreyShark was first showcased at Euronaval 2024. It shares DNA with the much smaller penguin-shaped UUV – Quadroin – developed by Evo Logics and already in service with a NATO navy. Two versions of the Greyshark are currently being produced: one running on batteries – “Cold-Bravo”, and the other one powered with fuel-cells – “Foxtrot”. Even though capabilities will remain similar with the same sensors, the difference between the two takes place in the autonomy and range. The company highlights the ‘Foxtrot’ could stay underwater for 4 months without surfacing. To extend the autonomy of ‘Cold-Bravo’, EuroAtlas is considering underwater charging nodes using induction technology.
At Euronaval in October 2024, the Greyshark prototype was on the assembly line. A few months later, the two German companies told Naval News they have carried out the propulsion trials in the specially designed hydrodynamic test basin of HSVA company in Hamburg, in order to get the first results of the AUV behavior when it sails at different speed. This step was essential to proceed to the next phase of testing.
It seems that these initial tests were closely followed. A Euroatlas representative reported to Naval News that delegations from the Deutsche Marine and the U.S. Navy took part in and observed these tests and shared with the manufacturers their “pleasant surprises concerning the platform”.
As for the next steps, work on the GreyShark appears to be on schedule. The battery version of the AUV will perform trials in a control-water environment within the next month, then its open-sea trials in May this year to test the drone’s capability, its propulsion in a real environment and its maneuverability. Similar tests will occur for the fuel-cell version within the next three months.
During this set of trials, payloads will also be tested: first on land and then fully integrated within the system. Thereafter, Euroatlas intends to maintain a high pace of testing, with a new major deadline: the participation of its AUV in the NATO REPMUS exercise in September 2025, held every year in Portugal and dedicated to the experimentation of UxV platforms by the Alliance and its member navies.
Euroatlas told to Naval News that following recent events, the AUV would be a “full European platform” – ITAR-free. The company has already provided several quotations to several navies, most of them European.
