DRDO's High Endurance Underwater Vehicle Completes Successful Surface Run

KOCHI, INDIA – The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has marked a major breakthrough in India's underwater defence and exploration capabilities with the successful maiden surface run of its High Endurance Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (HEAUV).

The test, conducted at Cochin Shipyard's International Ship Repair Facility (ISRF) Jetty in Kochi, signifies a key step in the development of advanced indigenous underwater technologies.

The HEAUV is an impressive underwater asset, weighing in at 6 tons with a length of 9.75 meters and a 1-meter diameter. Designed to operate at depths of up to 300 meters, it has a remarkable endurance of 15 days at a cruising speed of 3 knots, and a maximum speed of 8 knots.

This autonomous underwater vehicle is poised to play a crucial role in a wide array of missions, including:

• Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW): The HEAUV's advanced sensors will be instrumental in detecting and tracking enemy submarines, enhancing India's maritime defence capabilities.
• Mine Counter Measures (MCM): The HEAUV's autonomous navigation capabilities make it ideally suited for missions involving the detection and disposal of underwater mines.
• Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR): Equipped with sonar, radar, and electronic intelligence (ELINT) systems, the HEAUV will be a valuable asset for gathering comprehensive underwater data.
• Bathymetry: The HEAUV will facilitate the efficient mapping of the seabed, providing detailed information about the ocean floor.

The successful maiden surface run demonstrates the DRDO's commitment to strengthening India's underwater defence and exploration capabilities.

The HEAUV represents a significant leap forward in the development of autonomous underwater systems, positioning India at the forefront of technological innovation in this crucial domain.

 

[Apocalypse gupta]

use it to conduct "research" in south china sea, along with our newly built "survey" vessel.

 

[Ramsses CDXX]

• Who is its lead agency- NSTL or NPOL?
• Though late, DRDO finally joins the AUV/UUV club. Better if this morphs into a dual use item for civillian {NIOT, CFIA, CMRI, NIO,...} & military {IN, ICG}.
• As of now IN is using Hugin AUV of Saab as its workhorse.

 

[Anil Kumar]

Excellent, great. Try to complete all test as soon as possible. India is also developing extra large uncrewed underwater vehicle (XLUUV) upto 50 meter length and 300 ton weight category

 

[desigandu]

Let us make this an armed drone too, that can take out enemy ships and potentially subs...

 

[Amit Ray]

Good progress, 👍 👍.

 

[Sandeep]

This is a crucial capability that we need to give to all of our navy ships to enhance underwater observation and detect any threat. We also need these to search for critical resources like rare earth metal, oil and gas as India needs a huge amount of it all.

We should also develop these into lethal underwater armed drones as well because the war in Ukraine has shown that even well placed small boats, drones can bring down massive ships with big missiles.