Key points
- Ukraine’s uncrewed surface vehicles fundamentally altered naval warfare, with indigenous technology adopted by adversaries within a year and the country now developing underwater systems for sea-based commerce defense.
- Australia ordered dozens of Anduril autonomous underwater vehicles for 1.7 billion Australian dollars; Saronic, a three-year-old company building robot boats for the US Navy, valued at $1.75 billion after closing a funding round.
- AI and machine learning enable automated feature detection in underwater video, while environmental DNA technology allows robots to collect and analyze seawater samples to identify marine organisms.
- Industry consolidation accelerating: Kraken Robotics acquired Covelya Group for $615 million, and Saipem merged with Subsea 7 in the offshore energy sector.
