Over the past few years, there has been a drastic increase in the developments in the maritime technology such as stealth submarines, unmanned vehicles, maritime robots, network-centric warfare, undersea communications, and enhanced detection ranges of sonar. According to the market intelligence report by BIS Research titled, ‘Global Undersea Warfare Systems Market-Analysis and Forecast (2017-2021)’, the revenue generated by undersea warfare market was 8.25 billion in the year 2016 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period of 2017-2021. Globally, North America is expected to hold the largest share of the revenue by the end of the year 2021, owing to the high defense spending in the region. Moreover, Europe is also enhancing and deploying the undersea warfare systems which will help in furthering its position in the market.
In February 2018, ECA Group presented its latest mid-size ‘AUV A18-M’, developed to mine countermeasures. It is designed for efficient mine detection and classification in all water depths up to 300m.This mid-size AUV is on the top trade-off between size, weight, and long endurance. It can host high-cost performance sonar such as synthetic aperture sonar(SAS) providing unprecedented detection and classification performances.1
In November 2017, Norwegian Company, Kongsberg, and Germany based, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, had established a joint venture firm known as ‘Kta Naval Systems’. The main objective of the formed firm is to offer a full range of services for conventional submarines, including designs, development, and manufacture, and the counter piece in combat systems.2
In October 2017, one of the leading market player, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin developed the ‘Extra Large Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV)’, which is 51 feet long and designed to stay underwater for months, at a time. Further, it is used to test the Navy’s ability to manage a rapid acquisition project and Navy’s industry team ability to develop and integrate an unmanned system that operates completely independently of a manned ship.3
Some of the major players in the undersea warfare systems market include BAE Systems plc., ECA Group, General Dynamics, Harris Corporation, Kongsberg Gruppen, Leonardo, and Lockheed Martin. These prominent players are targeting to penetrate the growing economies and are implementing several methods to foster their market shares such as collaboration with manufacturers, partnerships with other leading players, and development of new devices.
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