Thales to develop AUV

has signed an agreement with the General Directorate for Enterprises (DGE) in

for the development of a fully autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) dedicated to maritime surveillance and security.

The Asemar project involves industry partners Thales, ECA and IXSEA and the research laboratories of Ensieta, Ecole Navale, ISEN and UBO.

Thales is responsible for overall project coordination and system deployment. The company will also supply a next-generation high-resolution side-scan sonar with synthetic-aperture array.

The system will be designed for surveillance of maritime areas, investigation and searches for submerged objects with certain characteristics.

Its performance specifications include high levels of energy and decision-making autonomy, generation of high-resolution underwater imagery from depth and compatibility with standard off-the-shelf equipment.

The system will also have the capability to track changes in the undersea environment between subsequent missions and compare the objects it detects with those stored in its database.