Kongsberg
Norwegian defence and maritime group; lead supplier in Europe's AUKUS Pillar II undersea-warfare bid.
Norway's Kongsberg leads Europe's counter-bid for AUKUS Pillar II underwater-vehicle contracts, and on 15 July 2026 the US Defense Innovation Unit selected it to design an extra-large uncrewed submarine, putting the firm on both sides of the AUKUS pipeline at once.
Last refreshed: 7 September 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Can Norway's HUGIN drones break into the AUKUS seabed programme US firms claimed on 30 May?
Timeline for Kongsberg
Reported the at-sea trials
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Autonomous Systems: Land & SeaBackground
Kongsberg, founded in 1814 and headquartered in the Norwegian town of the same name, is a defence and maritime technology group operating through two main divisions: Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, covering missiles and air-defence systems, and Kongsberg Discovery, which builds subsea sensors, autonomous underwater vehicles and ocean-data systems.
The HUGIN family of autonomous underwater vehicles has been qualified as a NATO mine-countermeasures payload on 14 separate allied programmes since 2003, spanning Norwegian, Swedish, German and Japanese naval customers, giving Kongsberg an integration record few newer entrants can match. Norway's defence-industrial relationship with the United States also gives HUGIN preferential access to ITAR-controlled components, a structural export advantage over most European competitors bidding into the same procurement cycle.
Kongsberg's footprint extends into offshore energy across the North Sea, and its subsea sensing is positioned to serve NATO's standing Greenland-Iceland-UK gap surveillance requirement, which Task Force X-Arctic began addressing with an uncrewed research-vessel mission in June 2026.
Kongsberg fights both sides of AUKUS
Kongsberg announced a strategic partnership with Italian submarine builder DRASS on 8 June 2026, pairing its HUGIN Superior autonomous underwater vehicle and HISAS 1032 sonar with DRASS's DG-900 submarine host and naming 2027 as its target entry into AUKUS Pillar II procurement, the first major non-US consortium to contest that hardware layer publicly.
The bid paid off beyond AUKUS itself: on 15 July 2026 the US Defense Innovation Unit picked Kongsberg Discovery, partnered with Oceaneering International, to design an extra-large uncrewed submarine under its Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform programme, a rare non-US design win inside the DIU's own process, run in parallel with, not instead of, its European counter-bid. The same fortnight it signed a Main Supplier deal with Fugro and took a HUGIN order from Norway's DOF.
Kongsberg fights both sides of AUKUS
Did Kongsberg sign any new commercial deals in July 2026?
What is the CAMP undersea vehicle Kongsberg is designing for the US Navy?
What subsea-infrastructure contract did Kongsberg win in July 2026?
Why does NATO trust Kongsberg's AUVs for seabed surveillance?
Did Kongsberg win any AUKUS contract?
What is Kongsberg's HUGIN AUV and why is it in the AUKUS bid?
Reference
How does Kongsberg's maritime division make money?
What does Kongsberg do?
Who owns Kongsberg Discovery AS?
What is the Kongsberg HUGIN vehicle?
Why did Denmark select Kongsberg Discovery AS?
