Defense company L3Harris Technologies has delivered three new Iver autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for the Royal Navy’s Project Wilton to support unmanned mine hunting and survey operations.
As informed, Iver AUVs are equipped with high-accuracy navigation sensors and advanced communication systems for surface tracking. They employ a collaborative autonomy architecture and automatic target recognition.
The Royal Navy uses these Iver vehicles for unmanned mine hunting and various missions, conducting route survey operations in UK waters and international areas. Specifically, these vehicles are part of the UK’s Mine Hunting Capability (MHC) program and the Zulu Squadron.
According to L3Harris, this delivery is crucial as it allows operations at depths of up to 300 meters and enables near-continuous mission deployment.
Following the delivery of the vehicles, the team spent the subsequent week trialing them to help sailors familiarize themselves with the additional capabilities offered by the Iver4 AUVs.
In the future, these robotic boats will detect and neutralize underwater mines to advance maritime autonomous systems within the Royal Navy.
In November last year, L3Harris delivered the first production AUV powered by lithium-ion (Li-ion) passive propagation resistant (PPR) batteries that are certified for use on US submarines. The firm partnered with the US Navy to implement the technology based on the NASA spacesuit design.