Autonomous submarine XV Excalibur handed to Royal Navy

The UK Submarine Distribution Firm (SDA) statement on 11 December 2025 that it turned over independent submarine XV Excalibur to the Royal Navy. Excalibur is a 12-metre speculative vessel. At a variation of 19 tonnes, it’s the biggest uncrewed undersea vessel ever before checked by the Royal Navy.

UK MoD news release

It’s been an active year for the SDA’s Freedom Device that have actually attained numerous landmarks with XV Excalibur, the UK’s initial uncrewed submarine.

Formally categorized as an Extra-Large Uncrewed Underwater Car (XLUUV), Excalibur is a 12-metre speculative vessel. At a variation of 19 tonnes, it’s the biggest uncrewed undersea vessel ever before trialled by the Royal Navy.

The end result of Job Cetus, it’s been established in under 3 years by the SDA in collaboration with MSubs Ltd. Funded by the Royal Navy, Job Cetus intends to develop count on Freedom and be a testbed to analyze army hauls and goals.

Authorities calling event

In May 2025, Excalibur was named and unveiled at an event in His Greatness’s Naval Base (HMNB) Devonport. It’ll currently invest the following 2 years performing comprehensive sea tests, which will certainly assist comprehend the chances and difficulties of running an uncrewed vessel of this dimension.

Workout Amulet Sabre

Excalibur‘s long-distance interoperability was shown simply months after the event, in Workout Amulet Sabre. Throughout the workout in August the Royal Navy efficiently regulated Excalibur in UK waters from a remote operating centre in Australia– greater than 10,000 miles from the vessel’s home in Plymouth.

Component of AUKUS Column 2, the “sophisticated capacity” element of the AUKUS trilateral collaboration, the workout noted the very first time the UK and Australia, have actually shown XLUUV interoperability as a solitary dealing with pressure.

Quantum optical atomic tests

This was adhered to with a world-first test, as Excalibur mosted likely to sea with a quantum optical atomic “Tiqker” clock aboard established by Infleqtion, a UK business leader in Quantum Modern technology. This noted the very first time such a gadget has actually been run mixed-up in an undersea vessel.

Unlike surface area vessels, submarines can not count completely on Gps (GPS) for navigating. Conventional microwave-based clocks supply security however can wander with time, making them much less exact.

Using quantum innovation like Tiqker improves a submarine’s capability to keep exact timing and navigating and lowers the requirement for outside signals. This permits the submarine to remain immersed and hidden for longer durations.

This test was not just provided efficiently by the SDA’s Freedom Device, MSubs, Infleqtion and Royal Navy, however additionally occurred 6 months in advance of timetable.

Handover to the Royal Navy

Given that introducing in February 2025, Excalibur has actually finished numerous approval tests, going beyond numerous initial style requirements.

Excalibur has actually currently formally been turned over to the Royal Navy. The SDA’s Freedom Device will certainly remain to sustain the Navy on Excalibur‘s examination and examination program, which intends to read more regarding her capacity and just how we can properly present freedom to functional usage.

This year’s development advertises an interesting future in which independent undersea automobiles and nuclear submarines operate in unison to supply remarkable undersea capacity for the Royal Navy.

Excalibur‘s capacity placements the UK as a leader in undersea independent innovation and showcases the SDA’s capability to manipulate the most recent modern technologies for nationwide safety.

SDA’s Freedom Device

SDA’s Freedom Device is a group of designers that create several of the advanced innovation that will certainly sustain the Royal Navy’s submarine solution in the future. They concentrate on development in the independent area, which describes automobiles which can run from another location and without straight human input.

The blog post Autonomous submarine XV Excalibur handed to Royal Navy showed up initially on Naval News.