Project Cetus XLAUV Hits The Water

British firm MSubs has launched its autonomous submarine set to form the backbone of the Royal Navy’s Project Cetus uncrewed undersea experimentation programme.

As per local MP Fred Thomas, the Plymouth-based firm put the extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle (XLAUV) into the water at Turnchapel Wharf on Friday; the submersible is soon set to be delivered to the Royal Navy.

MSubs won a £15 million contract to develop Cetus — named after a legendary sea monster  — at the end of December 2022. The sub is 12 metres long, weighs about 17 tonnes, and has an operational range of roughly 1,000 miles over five days.

The vessel’s dimensions enable it to fit inside a shipping container so it can easily be transported wherever it is required.

The aim is for the XLAUV to eventually be deployed both independently and in tandem with Astute-class crewed submarines on a range of missions including helping to protect critical undersea infrastructure (CUI).

When it was commissioned, the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) claimed Cetus would be “the largest and most complex crewless submersible operated by a European navy.”

• You can read more about Project Cetus on the U.K. MoD website and the Royal Navy website