Abu Dhabi's TII and France's Naval Group Agree to Work on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

The agreement was announced at the Euronaval 2026 exhibition in Paris. According to WAM, the two organisations will look for opportunities to develop and market uncrewed underwater vehicles together.

TII is the applied research arm of Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC). WAM said a central strand of the work will bring together TII's extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle, a class known as an XLUUV, and Naval Group's expertise in the combat capabilities of underwater drones. The partners said they will look for solutions that keep pace with changing maritime operational needs and that also build up the UAE's own capabilities in underwater autonomy.

What the Partners Said

Aurore Neuschwander, the Naval Group executive vice president who oversees drones, autonomous systems and underwater weapons, said the partnership builds on the company's long and close relationship with the UAE. She said it reflects a shared aim of developing advanced autonomous underwater capabilities, and that these would play an important part as the UAE responds to changing maritime security challenges.

Dr Najwa Aaraj, chief executive of TII, said autonomous underwater technology is on course to become a core element of future naval operations. She said the institute has built an advanced research base in the field and has developed systems that work efficiently and reliably in complex environments. In her view, combining TII's research with Naval Group's marine engineering will help move technology out of the laboratory and into systems that can actually be deployed.

WAM did not report the value of the agreement, a timeline, or whether either side has committed to building vehicles. The deal is framed as exploratory, covering opportunities for joint development and commercialisation rather than a production contract.

Why It Matters

The agreement fits Abu Dhabi's broader push to turn state-funded research into technology that can be sold, with defence and dual-use systems a growing focus. TII has spent recent years building programmes in autonomous robotics and related areas. Tying its underwater vehicle work to an established naval contractor gives it a possible route to operational users and to export markets that a research institute would struggle to reach alone.

For Naval Group, the deal deepens its ties to a Gulf customer and research partner at a time when uncrewed systems are taking a larger share of naval planning. Large underwater drones can stay at sea for long periods without putting crews at risk. They are being studied for surveillance, mine countermeasures and the protection of undersea infrastructure such as pipelines and communications cables, which are critical to Gulf economies.

This is the second UAE autonomous maritime announcement in two days. Earlier this week EDGE Europe, part of the Abu Dhabi defence group EDGE, agreed with Italy's Novamarine to explore autonomous naval drones. Taken together, the two deals show UAE institutions using European partners to speed up their own work on uncrewed maritime systems.

The next things to watch are whether the partners name a specific vehicle programme, set out a development schedule, or confirm a UAE customer for the systems.