European defence technology start-up Helsing has unveiled plans for a fleet of unmanned mini submarines that it claims will greatly enhance naval surveillance, at a time of rising threats to ships and critical ocean infrastructure. The company said its autonomous glider, SG-1 Fathom, would be able to patrol underwater for up to three months at a time. It will be equipped with an artificial intelligence system, dubbed Lura, which will be able to detect and classify sounds made by nearby ships and submarines faster and with greater accuracy than available alternatives, Helsing said. Gundbert Scherf, co-founder and co-chief executive of Helsing, said the Lura platform would “detect so our navies can deter”. Lura would be able to detect the so-called acoustic signatures of vessels up to 40 times faster than human operators, and at volumes 10 times quieter than other AI models, Helsing claimed. The company added a single operator would be able to monitor hundreds of SG-1 Fathom gliders, receiving intelligence at just 10 per cent of the cost of crewed anti-submarine warfare patrols. Helsing plans to deploy the system within the next 12 months.

Full story : German defense tech startup Helsing unveils an autonomous mini submarine, the SG-1 Fathom, powered by its AI system Lura, which can detect and classify sounds.