Congratulations to local business MSubs on the first launch for Project CETUS, a state-of-the-art unmanned submarine. Also known as their first Extra Large Underwater Autonomous Vehicle (XLUAV), CETUS is now destined for sea trials.
The following article is from Navylookout.com, published 1st March 2025. Read the article here
All photos (c) Turnchapel Wharf
CETUS, first Extra Large Underwater Autonomous Vehicle (XLUAV) technology demonstrator to be owned by the RN was launched in Plymouth this week.
The competition for an 8-12m XLUAV was started in early 2022 and MSubs of Plymouth were awarded the £21.5 million contract to manufacture CETUS in November 2022. It was hoped sea trials would begin in November 2024 but the project is a few months behind schedule.
CETUS is being designed and built from scratch, and will be the first XLUAV owned and operated by the RN under the auspices of the Submarine Delivery Agency’s Autonomy Unit (SDA-AU). Overall this project will span 6 years and following delivery, the Navy intends to employ her on trials and experimentation until at least 2027.
CETUS will be the largest and most complex uncrewed submersible operated by any European navy. It is officially described as “A representative large-scale AUV demonstrator to build trust in long endurance autonomous operations and be an adaptable testbed for mission payloads”. The vessel displaces 17 tonnes and is 12 metres long and 2.1 metres in diameter.”
The production vessel appears to closely match the model shown at DSEI in 2023 and the CGI renders issued at the time of the contract announcement. The standard Main Payload Space (MPS) in the centre has a 2m x 2m x 2m capacity and there are small Secondary payload spaces in the upper fore-end and lower aft end, likely to be occupied by sensors. The MPS has doors top and bottom that allow items to be loaded in from above and to exit from the underside of the craft when deployed underwater. Examples of potential payloads could include an ROV deployed on an umbilical from the mission bay and an Autonomous Underwater Ground Vehicle (AUGV) lowered to transit across the seabed.
CETUS is the next step on the way to the RN acquiring a large fleet of XLUAVs to add mass to its underwater battlespace capabilities and supplement its small SSN fleet. CETUS will be used to conduct a series of increasingly complex trials relevant to the operational environment and de-risk future technologies, including those that could be included in SSN-AUKUS.
The RN is leading the NATO ASW Barrier Smart Defence Initiative (SDI) which aims to supplement high end crewed ASW assets with autonomous systems to patrol the GIUK gap. Under project CABOT, the RN is looking to acquire a fleet of XLUAVs known as the ‘Type 93 chariot’ to patrol the area working in tandem with ASW-equipped USVs designated as the ‘Type 92 sloop’.
