Copenhagen Global moulds Orca USV for ISR and scalable production

Orca is pictured on sea trials. Alongside conducting surveillance below and above the surface in operations, its concept includes rapid scalability in production. (Copenhagen Group A/S)

Danish company Copenhagen Global A/S has revealed details of its Copenhagen Orca unmanned surface vehicle (USV), a platform developed to be deployable en masse and to provide scalable sensing presence to support maritime situational awareness.

The company presented the USV at the Danish Ministry of Defence's (MoD's) DALO Days event – an equipment exhibition hosted by the MoD's Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation (DALO) – in Copenhagen in late August. Orca's design and sensors were revealed and demonstrated in a video showing the USV conducting manoeuvres during sea trials and in a live data transmission on a screen at the show from another USV type (carrying the same data package) sailing in Copenhagen harbour. In September, at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) exposition in London, an in-water demonstration will feature high-speed manoeuvres plus data transmission.

Unveiling Orca at DALO Days, the company's CEO, Jeppe Handwerk, highlighted the concept's capacity to be scaled using moulds, and the importance of working with international partners, to add presence and surveillance quickly to deliver a ‘fight tonight' output underpinned by ‘industrial deterrence'.

Talking to Janes on 25 August, Handwerk – a former Royal Danish Navy sailor – said Orca's development was a response to national and international requirements to quickly add capability, especially for time-urgent tasks such as presence, surveillance, and deterrence.

To meet this requirement, “we decided to go all in, with a small platform, with an 825 kg sensor payload, to simply be able to scan, transmit, and conduct subsea survey[s] immediately with a platform very hard to detect on radar”, he added.

Design