France taps Naval Group for armed underwater drone study

STUTTGART, Germany – The French military has awarded Naval Group a new contract to study the design of a future armed unmanned underwater vehicle, the company announced June 7.

The nine-month study will allow Naval Group to examine principal use cases and develop system architectures for an Unmanned Combat Underwater Vehicle, or UCUV. Its missions would include intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), with the idea of helping the French military “master” the seabed, according to Naval Group.

The Armed Forces Ministry’s procurement office, the Direction Générale de l’Armement, awarded the contract on May 4, per a company statement.

The study comes as Naval Group prepares its extra-large unmanned underwater vehicle (XL-UUV) demonstrator for sea qualification this summer. The company began developing the system in 2016 and first unveiled it in 2021.

Once qualified, Naval Group will use the XL-UUV to test various “technological bricks” in a short cycle, the company said. One such brick could be the Controlled Decision-Making Autonomy (ADC) capability, developed with France’s national aerospace research center ONERA to be an “onboard brain for drones.”

“This first UCUV project paves the way for additional work to quickly develop the key technological bricks of such a drone, in relation to the development of the first demonstrator,” Naval Group said in the release.

The company did not respond to questions regarding the cost of the study before this article’s publication.

Seabed warfare has become a dominant topic of conversation in Europe, especially for the French military. Paris was the first government to issue a dedicated military strategy for the ocean floor domain in early 2022, and a portion of the nation’s €10 billion ($10.7 billion) dedicated to innovation in the proposed 2024-2030 Military Program Law will focus on the topic. A key goal for Paris is to develop an underwater drone that can reach depths of 6,000 meters.

The lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, voted on Wednesday to approve the six-year programming law, known as the Loi de Programmation Militaire (LPM) in French, by a vote of 408-87. The bill now goes to the Senate as the upper chamber for a vote.

Vivienne Machi is a reporter based in Stuttgart, Germany, contributing to Defense News' European coverage. She previously reported for National Defense Magazine, Defense Daily, Via Satellite, Foreign Policy and the Dayton Daily News. She was named the Defence Media Awards' best young defense journalist in 2020.

德国斯图加特——法国海军集团于6月7日宣布，法国军方已授予该公司一份新合同，研究未来武装无人水下航行器的设计。

这项为期九个月的研究将使法国海军集团能够考察无人作战水下航行器（UCUV）的主要应用场景，并开发其系统架构。法国海军集团表示，UCUV的任务将包括情报、监视和侦察（ISR），旨在帮助法国军方“掌控”海底。

根据该公司的一份声明，武装部队部采购办公室（Direction Générale de l'Armement）于 5 月 4 日授予了该合同。

这项研究正值法国海军集团准备今年夏季对其超大型无人水下航行器（XL-UUV）验证机进行海上鉴定之际。该公司于2016年开始研发该系统，并于2021年首次公开亮相。

海军集团表示，一旦完成认证，XL-UUV将用于在短时间内测试各种“技术模块”。其中一项技术模块可能是受控决策自主（ADC）能力，该能力由海军集团与法国国家航空航天研究院（ONERA）合作开发，旨在成为无人机的“机载大脑”。

“这个首个 UCUV 项目为进一步快速开发此类无人机的关键技术模块铺平了道路，这与首个演示机的开发有关，”海军集团在新闻稿中表示。

在本文发表之前，该公司没有回应有关该研究费用的问题。

海底作战已成为欧洲，尤其是法国军方热议的话题。巴黎是第一个在2022年初发布专门针对海底领域的军事战略的国家，该国拟议的2024-2030年军事计划法案中，100亿欧元（107亿美元）的创新专项资金也将用于此领域。巴黎的一项关键目标是研发一种能够下潜至6000米深度的水下无人机。

国民议会（下议院）周三以408票赞成、87票反对的投票结果，通过了为期六年的军事规划法，即法语中的《军事规划法》（Loi de Programmation Militaire，简称LPM）。该法案现在将提交参议院（上议院）进行表决。

薇薇安·马奇是驻德国斯图加特的一名记者，主要负责《防务新闻》的欧洲报道。她此前曾为《国家防务杂志》、《防务日报》、《卫星通讯》、《外交政策》和《代顿每日新闻》撰稿。2020年，她荣获防务媒体奖最佳青年防务记者称号。