Autonomous systems developer Anduril Industries says it has acquired Boston-based autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) start-up Dive Technologies.
Anduril said the acquisition would expand its suite of autonomous systems, extend its unmanned capabilities to the undersea domain, and “significantly accelerate the company’s strategic growth.”
The companies did not reveal financial aspects of the agreement.
Dive Technologies is the developer of the DIVE-LD, a modular and customizable AUV that can be optimized for a variety of defense and commercial mission types such as long-range oceanographic sensing, undersea battlespace awareness, mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, seabed mapping and infrastructure health monitoring.
“The world beneath the ocean is completely different than the one above it. It requires different types of sensors, modalities, and problem solving than the work we are doing in air, land and space,” said Anduril co-founder and CEO Brian Schimpf. “The Dive Technologies team brings unparalleled, deep domain expertise under the sea as well as a shared commitment to transforming US and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. We are thrilled to have them on board.”
Dive utilizes large format additive manufacturing (LFAM) techniques and a novel system architecture to rapidly produce the DIVE-LD at a fraction of the time and cost of existing AUVs.
Anduril believes that once integrated into its autonomy software, Lattice OS, the DIVE-LD would further disrupt this segment of the market.
“We built Dive to make undersea exploration safer, smarter, and cheaper, and to offer customers the highest level of customization. In four years, we reinvented AUVs by building a new system architecture from the ground up and bringing 3D printing to subsea robotics,” said Dive Technologies co-founder and CEO Bill Lebo. “With Anduril, we will rapidly scale our team, technology, and production to ensure our military partners have the best, most strategic advantage and our commercial customers have the most reliable tech in the greatest depths of the world’s oceans. We’re excited for the next chapter.”
The acquisition follows Anduril’s selection by US Special Operations Command to be its systems integration partner, supporting counter unmanned systems efforts under a nearly $1B Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract.
