Abu Dhabi's TII and France's Naval Group Agree to Develop Uncrewed Underwater Vehicles

The agreement, signed on November 3, brings together TII's work on an extra-large unmanned underwater vehicle, known as an XLUUV, and Naval Group's experience designing, developing and integrating unmanned combat underwater systems. The partners said the cooperation is meant to build autonomous underwater capabilities in the UAE and strengthen links with France's naval industrial base.

For the UAE, the deal moves a government research institute further into defence hardware with a commercial path. TII, the applied research arm of Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Research Council, is best known internationally for its Falcon family of open AI models, but it also runs programmes in autonomous systems and robotics. A partnership with one of Europe's main submarine builders gives that work an industrial partner able to integrate it into naval platforms.

Two Kinds of Mission

The release set out two broad uses. The first is persistent maritime surveillance and underwater reconnaissance in waters that are not contested. The second is combat underwater vehicles intended for contested waters, where Naval Group's background in military systems is most relevant.

"Autonomous underwater technologies are becoming central to the future of maritime operations," said Dr. Najwa Aaraj, chief executive of TII.

Aurore Neuschwander, Naval Group's executive vice president for drones, autonomous and underwater weapons systems, said: "These capabilities will be essential in addressing the evolving maritime security challenges for the country."

The companies did not disclose financial terms, a development timetable or whether any vehicle would be built in the UAE.

Naval Group has been expanding its own uncrewed underwater work. It is building an uncrewed combat underwater vehicle demonstrator for France's defence procurement agency, the DGA, under an existing framework agreement.

The TII agreement was one of several UAE-linked autonomy deals at this year's Euronaval, which runs from November 3 to 6 at Paris Nord Villepinte. Abu Dhabi start-up SIRBAI signed a memorandum with European missile maker MBDA at the same show to study adding its target detection and swarming software to a loitering munition MBDA has developed in the UAE.

The agreement commits the two sides to explore development and commercialisation rather than to a specific programme, so the next marker will be whether they announce a joint vehicle design or a first customer.