Oceaneering wins contract to build Freedom AUV and remote operations centre for US Navy
22/11/2024
Oceaneering International Inc has announced that its Subsea Robotics and Aerospace and Defense Technologies segments have been awarded a multi-million dollar contract by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) of the US Department of Defense to build a Freedom autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and establish an onshore remote operations centre (OROC) for the US Navy.
The award highlights Oceaneering’s ability to leverage technology originally developed to support the offshore energy industry into other markets, including the defence industry. The vehicle will be manufactured at Oceaneering’s facility in Morgan City, Louisiana, USA.
Peter Buchanan, Senior Director for Oceaneering’s Subsea Robotics segment, stated: “Oceaneering is excited to partner with the DIU and the US Navy. This award allows us to deliver commercial technology driven by energy industry needs to the US Department of Defense to address subsea security needs.”
Martin McDonald, Oceaneering’s Senior Vice President for Subsea Robotics, stated: “Our global footprint and worldwide supply chain allows us to maintain a 99% uptime for the world’s largest fleet of work-class subsea robotic vehicles. Oceaneering is able to leverage our existing facilities and supply chain to manufacture vehicles at scale, as we have done and continue to do for the energy industry.”
Oceaneering has conducted remote operations of commercial subsea robotic systems from OROCs since 2015 and has performed over 120,000 hours of remote operations to date. This recent contract award will bring this commercial capability to the US Navy.
