Metron and Cellula Robotics Join Forces for UUV Long Duration Ops

Metron has signed a partnership agreement with Cellula Robotics to expand uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) capabilities for advanced operations in dynamic environments.

The new agreement will leverage the expertise of both companies and address specific technical gaps in the UUV defense and offshore energy markets especially for long duration, multi-payload mission operations where communications are often denied or restricted.

As part of the new alliance, Metron's Resilient Mission Autonomy portfolio will be integrated into Cellula's Solus and Imotus families of vehicles to deliver AI-enabled situational awareness and execute real-time onboard mission adaption, rerouting and replanning, all with a multi-payload management system and the flexibility for ship or port-to-port mission deployments.

Cellula's Solus-LR and Solus-XR platforms (the latter with an operational range of at least 5,000 kilometers), will be equipped with Cellula's hydrogen fuel cell technology, supporting sustainable, long duration operations with zero carbon emissions.

According to the companies, the result is a scalable UUV solution using a reconfigurable vehicle profile that will lower risk, reduce cost, and maximize mission flexibility and efficiencies to better serve the U.S. defense, offshore energy, subsea telecommunications, and marine scientific exploration markets.

"This strategic collaboration signifies a major milestone in harnessing the expertise of Metron and Cellula to advance the frontier of long duration, multi-payload subsea capabilities. We are thrilled to collaborate with Cellula to deliver disruptive innovations that will enable greater capability and impact for U.S. defense and commercial clients,” said Van Gurley, CEO of Metron.

"This partnership represents a shared commitment to leverage expertise in the areas of hardware, software, and fuel cell technologies to expand UUV missions for dynamic and long-duration missions.

“The combined brain trust of Cellula and Metron brings hundreds of years of real world expertise to solve many of the challenges seen in subsea harsh environments, and reaffirms the critical role industry has to play delivering disruptive innovations into the evolving landscape of surface and subsea maritime missions,” added Neil Manning, CEO of Cellula Robotics USA, the subsidiary of Canada-based Cellula Robotics.