Timeline for SeeByte
Joined HII's team as a British subcontractor
Autonomous Systems: Land & Sea: UK picks HII at £303m; tender said £125mBackground
SeeByte is one of five British subcontractors named on the UK's £303m Mine Hunting Capability Block 2 award to HII Unmanned Systems on 3 November 2026.
The Edinburgh company began in 2002 in Heriot-Watt University's Ocean Systems Lab. It makes SeeTrack command and control software, the Neptune autonomy engine and automatic target recognition for sonar. It already holds a DE&S contract for command and control, autonomy and target recognition on the Royal Navy's mine-hunting programme, and the MoD confirmed it would work on Block 2.
That makes SeeByte a constant across Britain's mine-hunting robots whichever vehicle wins, while the hardware comes from Massachusetts.
What does SeeByte make?
Is SeeByte part of the Royal Navy's new mine-hunting drone contract?
Where did SeeByte come from?
Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 8 November 2026. Editorial standards.