France orders UCUV uncrewed combat submarine

France has ordered production of a large uncrewed combat submarine demonstrator for its navy, with first sea trials planned for 2028. The French defense procurement agency DGA and the Defense Innovation Agency signed the contract with Naval Group on Nov. 3, the French shipbuilder said in a press release.

The demonstrator, called UCUV for Unmanned Combat Underwater Vehicle, is meant to give the French Navy its first extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle, a class of robotic submarines big enough to operate for long periods on their own. Naval Group and French officials did not disclose the value of the contract, how many vehicles will be built, or the demonstrator’s final size and payload.

When France first launched the project, the French Armed Forces Ministry said it wanted a long-endurance platform more than 10 meters (33 feet) long and weighing more than 10 metric tons. The ministry described the goal as a medium-term answer to new kinds of conflict, with possible missions including intelligence gathering, underwater detection and protection of carrier groups, surface ships and submarines. The vehicle is also expected to be able to carry and recover smaller underwater drones.

The DGA awarded Naval Group a framework agreement for the project in December 2023. Since then, the company has used its own XL-UUV demonstrator, built with its own research money and qualified at sea in 2023, to test the technology the UCUV needs. That work covered mission autonomy, safe underwater navigation, endurance and specialized payloads, and Naval Group says it helped keep the project within its budget and schedule.

A key part of the new vehicle is software. The UCUV will run Naval Group’s Steeris OB autonomous decision-making system, which the company describes as an onboard brain that works under a human operator’s supervision. Steeris OB is designed to let a drone carry out long missions without remote control in areas where communications are limited or jammed, constantly replanning its route and behavior based on the tactical situation, either alone or alongside other crewed or uncrewed systems.

The French program joins similar efforts by allied navies. The U.S. Navy has received its first Orca extra-large uncrewed submarine from Boeing, and Australia has unveiled its first Ghost Shark underwater drone built by Anduril.

Naval Group has grouped its drone products into four families: Seaquest uncrewed surface vessels, Seagent uncrewed underwater vehicles, Steeris onboard intelligence and mission systems, and Sealken launch and recovery systems. The company unveiled its SCX26 concept for a drone-carrying surface combatant at the Euronaval exhibition in Paris the same week the UCUV contract was signed.

The UCUV demonstrator is scheduled to begin sea trials in 2028.