The Royal Navy has opened preliminary market engagement for the Type 93 extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle and the AUKUS Signature Payload Programme, inviting companies to register interest before any requirement is set, according to a notice published on Find a Tender at ten past twelve on Monday.
“The Royal Navy seeks to improve its understanding of the market and wider ecosystem for Extra-Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV) platforms, associated payloads, and enabling functions,” it says. “This activity supports the development of the Type 93 capability and the Royal Navy’s commitments under the AUKUS Pillar II Signature Project.”
Registrations are sought from “XLUUV platform providers, payload providers, relevant technology and software suppliers including Autonomy, AI and Mission Management Systems, integrators, through-life support providers, and other relevant suppliers.” Those who come forward may be invited to collaborative workshops, one to one meetings, industry days and written requests for information, and small and medium-sized enterprises are flagged as particularly suitable.
“The Royal Navy is initially considering platforms approximately 2 metres in diameter and 12 metres in length, however organisations offering platforms of other dimensions are also encouraged to register,” the notice says, adding that it “should not be considered as a commitment from the Royal Navy to progress with any future procurement activities.”
XV Excalibur, the uncrewed submarine Britain already operates, is twelve metres long, two metres across and displaces nineteen tonnes. It was unveiled at Devonport in May last year, as this publication reported at the time, having been built by MSubs of Plymouth under the three-year Project Cetus, for which the Ministry of Defence awarded a £15.4 million contract in December 2022. It joined the Fleet Experimentation Squadron as a demonstrator with no operational role.
The Royal Navy controlled Excalibur in home waters from an operating centre in Australia during Talisman Sabre in July 2025, the first British and Australian demonstration of XLUUV interoperability under AUKUS Pillar II. It carried out the first underwater operation of a quantum optical atomic clock that November and transferred to Royal Navy ownership in December. In June the Submarine Delivery Agency awarded MSubs a further £6.7 million for trials and evaluation running to May 2028, work intended to move the programme towards functional payloads.
On 13 September, Excalibur fired an American Mark 48 exercise torpedo at the British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre in Scotland. Britain and the United States described it as the first time either country had launched a heavyweight torpedo from an uncrewed vessel, carried out under Project Broadsword and Trial Iron, both part of AUKUS Pillar II.
The Type 93 designation first appeared in February last year, in Project CABOT documents setting out a persistent wide area anti-submarine search capability built around the Type 92 Sloop, an uncrewed surface vessel, and the Type 93 Chariot, described then as a drone submarine. Luke Pollard, the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, confirmed in July that the Defence Investment Plan had announced Type 92 uncrewed underwater sensing platforms and Type 93 extra-large uncrewed underwater vessels as part of the Atlantic Bastion programme, adding that the number of platforms to be procured and their construction schedules had not yet been determined.
He has also told Parliament that the Hybrid Navy will take at least £1.5 billion over four years, and that by 2030 the aim is to have the first large autonomous vessels in service, among them a prototype uncrewed missile platform and extra-large uncrewed underwater vessels carrying payloads developed through AUKUS.
The notice states that the programme “directly aligns with the Strategic Defence Review (SDR), Defence Investment Plan (DIP) and AUKUS Pillar II priorities, supporting the transition to a Hybrid Navy through the integration of autonomous and uncrewed maritime capabilities.”
I’m probably being too cynical perhaps but having produced this demonstrator and doesn’t Bae have one too, why are we looking to potentially re invent the wheel by the sounds of it. Don’t tell me, we need to delay matters so as to give us time to check the sofa for loose coins? Let’s hope Vance hasn’t got there first 🫣.