One boat, many missions: Cross Water’s plug-in navy RIB

Swedish-Estonian boatbuilder Cross Water wants to turn the military rigid inflatable boat into a plug-and-play platform, with drones, sensors and mission equipment that lock onto the deck in minutes and software that will eventually let the same hull run by remote control or on its own.

The company, which also trades as XW Production, builds the XW Modular, a family of aluminum rigid inflatable boats with structural rails built into the deck. Consoles, seats, sensors and other mission gear clip onto those rails without tools, so operators can switch a boat from diving support to drone launching or surveillance instead of buying a different boat for each job.

“Boats today are where phones were in 2006: one device, one job,” said Jürgen Visnapuu, CEO and co-founder of Cross Water.

Cross Water’s 7.5 m (25 ft) XW Modular 750 is now in its second year of service with navy divers and special operations forces in a NATO country the company does not name. In September, that navy took the boat to Portugal for REPMUS 2026, the annual NATO-backed exercise for uncrewed maritime systems, where Dutch company Lobster Robotics launched and operated its new-generation seabed drone from the 750’s deck, among other uses. Based on that operational record, Cross Water rates the 750 at Technology Readiness Level 9, the highest level, meaning a system proven in real missions.

REPMUS excercise with Lobster Robotics drone: Lobster Robotics’ seabed drone on the deck of the XW Modular 750 during REPMUS 2026 in Portugal, September 2026. Photo by Lobster Robotics

“You have no idea how often we think back to this boat,” said Daan de Groot, chief technology officer and co-founder of Lobster Robotics, which first worked from the boat in 2025. “It has been the best we have used, by a long shot.”

The Defence Blog first reported on the XW Modular 750 in August 2025, when the company said the boat had already spent two years in trials in the Baltic Sea and on Lake Peipus on Estonia’s border with Russia, where Estonian border guards operate in rough conditions, and that it was working with Tallinn University of Technology on autonomy modules.

Cross Water’s next step is software. Its in-house Vessel Manager system is meant to act as the boat’s operating system, recognizing which modules are mounted and where, and running everything on deck as a single system, including remote control and later autonomy. The company plans to introduce remote operation in 2027, followed by autonomous, optionally crewed operation.

“Autonomy is an upgrade, not a new boat,” Visnapuu said. “A navy runs the hull crewed today and adds remote operation and autonomy to the same hull later.”

The first mission modules are being co-developed with partner companies that Cross Water has not yet named, and Visnapuu said any company that puts a sensor or drone on the water or in the air could become a module on the platform.

The company is now building a larger 10.5 m (34 ft) model in Estonia, due to launch in spring 2027. Designed by co-founder Niclas Kling, a naval architect who previously worked at the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, the new boat is built for a top speed of 60 knots (111 km/h) and will be the first to carry Vessel Manager.

Cross Water has also built a 750 for a customer in the Gulf that is awaiting shipment, and it offers its boats both for sale and as a full-service rental. It plans to exhibit at IDEX 2027 in Abu Dhabi in January, and has put a free 3D configurator online that lets anyone design a mission layout on the boat.