With some delay on the original expectations, the CETUS eXtra Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle for the Royal Navy has now been lowered into the water at Turnchapel Wharf in Plymouth. The order for the CETUS demonstrator was awarded to MSubs, a small but highly specialized company in Plymouth, on 1 December 2022, with a cost of £15.4 million
The XLUUV is currently the largest in Europe and one of the largest of its kind worldwide, at 17 tons and 12 meters of length for circa 2.2 meters in diameter.
CETUS has a payload space in the centre module sized 2m x 2m x 2m and there are small secondary payload spaces in the upper fore-end and lower aft end. CETUS has been described as “able to travel more than 1,000 miles in a single mission” and “able to dive at greater depths than SSNs”, although detailed specifications have not been released.
CETUS will be the second demonstrator uncrewed submarine for the Royal Navy, but the first purpose designed. The first demonstrator, the S-201 MANTA, also from Msubs, was quickly obtained through conversion of a crewed submersible. MANTA, at 9 metres long and just under 9 tonnes in weight, had an endurance of up to 48 hours, and top speeds of up to 12 knots. It was last used by the Royal Navy last year after being acquired in 2020. During its brief but important naval career it helped demonstrate the underwater Autonomy software core and various concepts of operations enabled by multiple payloads including sonar towed arrays. It was with a sonar array that MANTA took part in REPMUS 2024 in Portugal acting as an uncrewed element in an ASW barrier to detect enemy submarines. Known payloads tested on the MANTA are the KRAIT towed array by SEA Ltd, a digital thin ray array by Seiche, a Sonardyne forward looking sonar and electro-optical systems on mast by Petards Joyce-Loebl Ltd and VIZGARD Ltd.
The Royal Navy has, in the past, publicly expressed the ambition to get to XLUUV in the 30 meters size range, with mission ranges of 3,000 nautical miles and “months” of endurance.
Most recently, the launch of Project CABOT for an ASW barrier for the North Atlantic included references to a prospective “TYPE 93 CHARIOT” XLUUV (the name CHARIOT being a nod to the “human torpedo” employed in World War 2). CETUS is intended as a demonstrator and will not probably lead directly to the intended “TYPE 93” but will be a crucial step in that direction.
The submarine was lowered into the water at Turnchapel Wharf on 28 February with no immediate “celebration” of the milestone. Sea trials will follow.
In the meanwhile, BAE Systems has also brought to UK waters its HERNE XLUUV, built in cooperation with the Canadian Cellula Robotics. Unlike CETUS, it is not Royal Navy owned but represents a useful alternative product for further experiments and evaluation.
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