NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic has awarded its first research and development contract on behalf of a NATO ally to HonuWorx, a UK-based undersea robotics company.
The contract, awarded on behalf of Defence Research and Development Canada, will see HonuWorx conduct an engineering study to extend the operating depth of its undersea systems, alongside development of a high-fidelity simulation suite to demonstrate mission potential in challenging operational environments. The work is designed to reduce technical risk and support the initial steps toward a deployable system.
Lee Wilson, CEO of HonuWorx, said autonomous subsea systems were evolving from data collection platforms toward the delivery of real capability, with the potential to change how sensitive seabed operations were conducted. “This work focuses on extending that capability into deeper environments while meeting specific operational requirements, and represents a further step toward operational deployment,” he said.
Brian May, Section Head for Scientific and Engineering Trials at DRDC’s Atlantic Research Centre, said HonuWorx’s system, initially envisioned for the offshore oil industry, held the potential to allow Canadian defence research to “effectively and efficiently operate and maintain future, deepwater power and data infrastructure and support the testing of emerging deep-sea technologies.”
HonuWorx was selected after participating in DIANA’s Critical Infrastructure and Logistics Challenge in 2025, during which the company was paired with COVE, the DIANA accelerator site in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, working with end users and technical experts to refine its solution. Under the Rapid Adoption Service framework, DIANA can award research and development and prototype contracts on behalf of allies through an opt-in programme, reducing administrative barriers and accelerating adoption timelines, with successfully demonstrated prototypes able to transition through to production without further competition.
Jyoti Hirani-Driver, Acting Managing Director of NATO DIANA, said the Rapid Adoption Service was designed to help allies move faster from identified capability need to real-world solutions, adding that “this contract with Defence Research and Development Canada and HonuWorx shows how Allied nations can quickly and collaboratively leverage DIANA to turn innovation into operational capability.”
The contract directly supports NATO’s Rapid Adoption Action Plan, agreed at the 2025 Hague Summit, which aims to reduce technology adoption timelines across the Alliance to a maximum of 24 months. For this contract, DIANA’s legal, commercial and adoption teams worked closely with DRDC to co-develop the contract specifications and establish the opt-in programme, enabling DIANA to act on Canada’s behalf.
