A subsea technology demonstrator designed to blaze the trail for future UK Royal Navy (RN) extra large uncrewed underwater vehicles (XLUUV) has entered the water for the first time.
Photographs first published on X showed the MSubs-built Project CETUS testbed being craned into the water at Turnchapel Wharf, Plymouth, on 28 February. The craft is planned to begin its trials and evaluation programme next month.
Funded through the UK’s Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Spearhead programme, Project CETUS is intended to reduce the risks associated with the acquisition of future large-size AUVs and their payloads, and help the RN develop and test concepts of use so as to better understand where XLUUV fit into the future underwater battlespace. Primary use cases comprise ASW, seabed warfare, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
MSubs was in November 2022 awarded a £15.4 million contract by the Submarine Delivery Agency Autonomy Unit to design, develop and build the CETUS testbed. At 12 m in length, 2.2 m in diameter, and weighing up to 25 tonnes with a full test payload, the demonstrator is claimed to be largest and most complex crewless submersible procured by a European navy to date.
As well as providing a testbed for different mission payloads, the Project CETUS craft is also intended to build trust in long endurance autonomous operations. As currently configured, the demonstrator will have an endurance of about five days; the design allows for the integration of additional batteries to further extend endurance if required..
The RN is already looking to exploit XLUUV as part of its future vision – dubbed Project CABOT – for a deployable and persistent wide area ASW search capability in the North Atlantic. The second part of Project CABOT, known as Bastion Atlantic, envisages a ‘Type 93 chariot’ XLUUV being used in conjunction with other sensors and uncrewed platforms to deliver mass and persistence in the North Atlantic.
