Exail completes trial of new large long-endurance USV

6th June 2024 - 14:00 GMT | by The Shephard News Team in London

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DriX O-16 was demonstrated to French naval personnel on 5 June. (Photo: Exail)

The DriX O-16 uncrewed surface vessel (USV) is dual-use, can conduct operations for up to 30 days with an autonomy of 3,500nm and can deploy multiple payloads and subsea assets.

Exail earlier this month conducted sea trials of its DriX O-16 large USV including demonstrations to naval personnel and scientific observers in waters off the south of France.

First unveiled at Oceanology International in London in March, the system was later put to sea on 29 May with the demonstration occurring on 5 June.

DriX O-16 is the largest of the company’s off-the-shelf USVs with a length of 15.75m (twice the size of its DriX H-8 stablemate), a displacement of 10,500kg, an endurance of up to 30 days, a range of 3,500nm and a maximum speed of 16kt.

The system has a modular design which allows for deployment of smaller AUVs and ROVs and is designed for unexploded ordnance surveys as well as subsea infrastructure inspections.

The platform can operate beyond line of sight and over the horizon using 4G connectivity, Kongsberg broadband radio, Silvus network radio, w-fi and Starlink satellite and is able to select the best communication mode depending on the environment.

Exail’s smaller DriX platforms have already taken part in naval exercises including International Maritime Exercise (IMX) 23 in March last year and the USN’s Digital Horizon uncrewed systems and AI exercise in Bahrain two months earlier.

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