Exail to supply Drix USVs for undisclosed European customer

Exail's Drix USV has been procured by an undisclosed European navy for deployment on ISR missions. (Exail)

French robotics and maritime technologies company Exail has been awarded a contract to supply five Drix H-8 unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) to an undisclosed European navy.

Announcing the milestone on 30 June, Exail said the contract represented the largest order to date for its Drix USV.

In service, the five USVs will be deployed for intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance (ISR) missions to enhance situational awareness and help protect key maritime routes, the company said.

The USVs to be delivered will be equipped with Exail inertial navigation sensors and forward-looking sonars for obstacle avoidance and the collection of underwater data.

Launched to the civilian market in 2017, the H-8 is the baseline (and smallest) variant of Exail's Drix series of USVs – of which there are now four versions.

It is a medium-range USV with a length of 7.71 m and weighs 1,600 kg. Designed to operate 24/7, it has an endurance of up to 10 days, a range of 1,000 n miles, a fuel capacity of 250 litres, and a maximum speed of 14 kt.

The USV is equipped with a dedicated launch and recovery system (LARS) for the deployment of remotely operated towed vehicles. It can conduct both remote-controlled and supervised autonomous operations and is transportable in a 40 ft high cube container. It relies on a multichannel redundant communication system and can support both line-of-sight (LOS) and beyond-LOS (BLOS) operations using 4G connectivity, a Kongsberg broadband radio, Silvus network radio, Wi-Fi, and Starlink satellite.