Belgium's defence ministry awarded Exail Robotics Belgium €9.87m on 14 September, without competition, for three TRIDENT boat-based systems that deploy the K-STER C expendable mine-disposal vehicle, for Ukraine, on a 24-month contract1. The Belgian notice matches the description of July's order for three Exail light mine-countermeasures systems from an undisclosed European navy, and neither Exail nor Belgium has said whether it is the same contract. Exail Technologies, the French parent, still trades in its own name while its merger with Thales runs to 2028.
The rest of Europe's public procurement notices for underwater autonomy between 5 September and 7 October bought almost nothing but single units. Wojskowa Akademia Techniczna, Poland's Military University of Technology, contracted one unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) for hull inspection, sampling and reconnaissance on 10 September, for 952,383 zloty (TED 637726-2026)2. Tallinn University of Technology awarded one autonomous micro-AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle), with training, in a notice published on 18 September (TED 645150-2026)3.
The Spanish Navy at Cartagena opened a tender on 7 October to refit two Sparus II AUVs under a file code that suggests 2018, with bids due on 23 October (TED 691082-2026)4. Italy's naval armaments directorate, NAVARM, tendered €1.78m of explosive cutters on 11 September under the procurement code for UUVs; the notice does not say what the cutters are for (TED 629083-2026)5.
Where buyers wanted a person on the cable, they bought that. Geneva's water police took a tethered remotely operated vehicle (ROV) rated to 300m (TED 633291-2026)6, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology took a two-person-portable ROV rated to 500m (TED 662443-2026)7. Belgium tendered for twelve tethered ROVs in July. One month of notices is a thin sample, and some subsea programmes are direct-awarded, as Denmark's Kongsberg buy was. On the open record, European subsea demand still moves at the scale of a research grant.
