NVL and Kraken establish joint venture for unmanned systems

Kraken K3 Scout USVs at Kraken's production site near Portsmouth, UK, in July 2025. (Kraken Technology Group)

A joint venture (JV) to be called ‘NVL Kraken' was announced on 22 August by German shipyard NVL and British company Kraken Technology Group.

The JV is intended to provide market-ready, scalable, unmanned platforms of various sizes for applications such as maritime surveillance and protection of critical infrastructure, the companies said.

Kraken could benefit by utilising the production facilities at NVL's shipyard Blohm+Voss in Hamburg, in addition to its UK production facilities, to scale up manufacturing of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). NVL could benefit by incorporating Kraken's expertise in USV development, moving towards a shipbuilding offering including collaboration between manned and unmanned systems.

NVL recently invested in Kraken and has secured options to invest in a further round planned for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2025, with both companies saying they will invest substantially in the roll-out of the JV structure.

Manufacturing is anticipated to begin as soon as Q4 2025, starting with smaller USVs before moving on to larger ones.

Tim Wagner, CEO of NVL, said the fruits of the JV could include “our design concepts for the naval tender vessel NTV 130 as a drone mother ship that could succeed the six tender vessels (the Elbe class) currently operated by the German Navy”.

For more information, please see Feature: Germany's frigate programmes evolving with future fleet plansand BlueHalo to provide autonomy capabilities for Kraken Technology Group's unmanned maritime platforms .