A £15.4 million contract for a cutting-edge crewless submarine known as Cetus XLUUV has been awarded to Plymouth firm MSubs by the Royal Navy.

Maritime Tactical Systems, Inc. (“MARTAC”) and MSUBS Limited (“MSUBS”) are pleased to announce they have entered into an unmanned alliance combining MARTAC’s industry leading innovative maritime unmanned surface vehicle (USV) MANTAS with MSUBS’s design, manufacture and operation of manned and unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) ‘submersibles’ and artificial intelligence (AI) for military and commercial markets.

The first extra-large autonomous test submarine will be developed for the Royal Navy following a new contract by the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA). An initial £1 million contract has been awarded to Plymouth-based MSubs Ltd to build a test submarine that will be used to explore the potential capabilities of larger uncrewed underwater vehicles in the future.