Latest news with #Helsing
New European
20-05-2025
- Business
- New European
We must take a nuclear leap into the unknown
The product in question is, at first sight, a miniature submarine – about two metres long – produced by a German company called Helsing and set to be made in Britain. The SG1-Fathom glides unpowered, with no moving parts, and searches for enemy ships and submarines using the same technology as a warship does: 'passive sonar', which listens without emitting signals of its own. It's been a while since I said 'Wow!' at a technology product launch. As a jaded veteran of the dotcom boom, I have learned to be sceptical about the idea that a particular technology 'changes everything'. But last week, for the first time amid the current hype about artificial intelligence, I had one of those moments. But the payload of the system is in the AI it carries. Lura can, claim its makers, detect the tell-tale sound of a Russian sub at volumes 10 times quieter than a human sonar operator; and classify the target 40 times faster. Just as the makers of ChatGPT have 'trained' their product on a vast library of existing data, Helsing have trained theirs on a library of acoustic recordings. Like ChatGPT, once in use, the AI system will train itself on the new inputs it receives. When it recognises something that sounds like an enemy submarine, it surfaces and pings location data to its controllers via satellite. Today this job is done by Britain's fleet of six Type-23 class frigates, each with a helicopter that could drop maybe 30 sonar buoys into the sea to search for enemy vessels. The price of the SG-1 unit is not public, but it's designed to be cheap enough to buy (or quite possibly lease) in much larger numbers. Deploy a thousand of these into the waters off Russia's arctic naval bases and you could neutralise the military selling point of nuclear-powered submarines: their stealth. But while you're celebrating this triumph of Anglo-German ingenuity, consider this. If Russia or China were to invent something similar, they could place in jeopardy our own nuclear deterrent – whose submarines regularly leave their base at Faslane to enter a game of cat and mouse with Russian subs trying to detect and follow them. In short, AI – which has already changed the game of land warfare in Ukraine – could be about to change the much bigger game of nuclear deterrence between major states. The Royal Navy has not yet decided whether to buy the SG-1: other solutions are on offer. In all events, we are in a maritime AI arms race. For the Russians, the obvious countermeasure against a barrier of underwater drones would be to blow up everything in the water with a nuclear depth charge. Failing that, they might design their own fleet of mini-subs to kill ours, spoof the sonar, flood the sea with noise, take down our satellites or produce an AI model that can out-think us. The point is: the earlier we get into the game of defence AI, the more likely it is that we can stay ahead. That, in turn, demands a mindset change from the UK defence industry and government. In the future, what matters most might be whose sound library is the most detailed, how quick the AI is at learning, or how much computing power can be pushed to the drone rather than the central server – not just the stuff we're used to, like ship design or human skill. But the biggest change of all may lie in how such innovations shape geopolitics. Sea power has been key to the success of most great empires, ours included. But though you can assert 'sea control' – intercepting maritime cargoes at specific choke points and sinking the enemy's ships – you can never fully 'control' the sea as a domain of warfare in the way an army can control the land. Nuclear-powered subs became the capital ships of the 21st century because, despite their colossal size, they are like a needle in a haystack to find once they get out into the open ocean. If you lay a barrier of intelligent, silent sensors – for example in the sea between the Shetland and Faroe Islands – you can make it unacceptably risky for Russia to sail a submarine through it. You can, in short, make naval warfare much less fluid and more like trench warfare: sticky, predictable, observable and costly. There are, of course, ethical challenges with AI. If you were to stick explosives on to the pointy end of Helsing's mini-sub, and give it permission to target the enemy autonomously, you had better hope its AI does not 'hallucinate' in the way that ChatGPT is prone to. But the bigger problem may be strategic. If, within five years' time, these things are everywhere, and every nuclear-armed power on earth knows its subs are detectable, how do they react? Put more missiles into land silos? Put tactical nukes on bombers? Or do all great powers simply accept that their submarines are observable, and make the best of the predictability that might bring to international relations? I don't know the answers – but I do know that generic problem we now face. AI is altering the dynamics of human endeavour in every sphere it's being applied to: from student essay writing to medical diagnosis to anti-submarine warfare. To manage the AI revolution, the political class has to become far more literate about its potential. There are thousands of civil servants and business leaders who know how to play the current game of defence procurement: slowly, with great risk aversion and with a tendency to buy upgrades of stuff they've bought before. Now they have to get their heads around managing the innovation process for technologies whose future development they cannot know: making faster decisions, accepting greater risks and becoming prepared to leap into the unknown – none qualities valued in Whitehall. Get it right, and we can stay permanently ahead of states that want to harm us. Get it wrong, and any technological advantage we enjoy today evaporates.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A European defense startup is making drone submarines that can lurk underwater for 3 months at a time
German defense tech startup Helsing is working on a fleet of AI-equipped underwater sea drones. It said they can operate for three-month stretches, with hundreds controlled by a single operator. The news comes as NATO seeks to shore up the defense of vital subsea cable infrastructure. German military tech startup Helsing said it is readying a fleet of undersea drones amid intensifying threats to subsea cables, and said they'd be ready to deploy in around a year. The uncrewed submarine, the SG-1 Fathom, would be able to patrol and stay underwater for up to three months at a time, it said. In a statement Tuesday, the company said that its AI Lura software detects subsea threats and can identify ship and submarine models from their underwater sound patterns. It claimed the software operates 40x faster than human operators, and is 10x quieter than other models, meaning it's better able to evade detection. "We must harness new technologies to keep pace with the threats against our critical infrastructure, national waters, and way of life," said Gundbert Scherf, cofounder and co-CEO of Helsing. Hundreds of the drones could be deployed at the same time, controlled by a single operator, the company said, monitoring undersea regions for threats and relaying live data. Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC, told BI that underwater drones such as the ones being developed by Helsing "would be effective at monitoring underwater infrastructure." He added that each drone's detection range is "quite short," but that the system is designed to manage dozens or even hundreds at a time. Clark also said that underwater drones could be vulnerable to electronic jamming, which could impact their navigation systems and cause them to get "lost." Helsing's announcement comes amid intensifying threats to networks of subsea cables crucial for carrying internet data. European officials blamed Russia for a series of subsea cable severances in the Baltic late last year and in January, which some said was part of the Kremlin's "hybrid warfare" campaign. In September, Business Insider reported that a specialist Russian submarine sabotage unit had been surveilling subsea cables. NATO has formed its own special unit to better defend critical underwater infrastructure, and has also said it's developing new satellite technology so that data can be rerouted in the event of a massive disruption. European militaries are also testing and deploying sea drones as part of their bid to increase undersea monitoring and shore up defenses. The UK's military, as part of its Project Cabot, is testing new drone and AI technology to monitor underwater infrastructure, and is working with Helsing on the project, The Times of London reported Tuesday. Helsing has already produced AI systems and aerial drone systems for European militaries, and was valued at $5.4 billion during a funding round last year. It said it had developed the sea drones following interest from several navies, and had tested them at a naval base in the south of England. "Deploying AI to the edge of underwater constellations will illuminate the oceans and deter our adversaries, for a strong Europe," Helsing's Scherf said. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
15-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
A European defence startup is making drone submarines that can lurk underwater for 3 months at a time
German military tech startup Helsing said it is readying a fleet of undersea drones amid intensifying threats to subsea cables, and said they'd be ready to deploy in around a year. The uncrewed submarine, the SG-1 Fathom, would be able to patrol and stay underwater for up to three months at a time, it said. In a statement Tuesday, the company said that its AI Lura software detects subsea threats and can identify ship and submarine models from their underwater sound patterns. It claimed the software operates 40x faster than human operators, and is 10x quieter than other models, meaning it's better able to evade detection. "We must harness new technologies to keep pace with the threats against our critical infrastructure, national waters, and way of life," said Gundbert Scherf, cofounder and co-CEO of Helsing. Hundreds of the drones could be deployed at the same time, controlled by a single operator, the company said, monitoring undersea regions for threats and relaying live data. Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC, told BI that underwater drones such as the ones being developed by Helsing "would be effective at monitoring underwater infrastructure." He added that each drone's detection range is "quite short," but that the system is designed to manage dozens or even hundreds at a time. Clark also said that underwater drones could be vulnerable to electronic jamming, which could impact their navigation systems and cause them to get "lost." Helsing's announcement comes amid intensifying threats to networks of subsea cables crucial for carrying internet data. European officials blamed Russia for a series of subsea cable severances in the Baltic late last year and in January, which some said was part of the Kremlin's "hybrid warfare" campaign. In September, Business Insider reported that a specialist Russian submarine sabotage unit had been surveilling subsea cables. NATO has formed its own special unit to better defend critical underwater infrastructure, and has also said it's developing new satellite technology so that data can be rerouted in the event of a massive disruption. European militaries are also testing and deploying sea drones as part of their bid to increase undersea monitoring and shore up defenses. The UK's military, as part of its Project Cabot, is testing new drone and AI technology to monitor underwater infrastructure, and is working with Helsing on the project, The Times of London reported Tuesday. Helsing has already produced AI systems and aerial drone systems for European militaries, and was valued at $5.4 billion during a funding round last year. It said it had developed the sea drones following interest from several navies, and had tested them at a naval base in the south of England. "Deploying AI to the edge of underwater constellations will illuminate the oceans and deter our adversaries, for a strong Europe," Helsing's Scherf said.
ABC News
14-05-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Australian-made underwater glider drones equipped with artificial intelligence could soon bolster UK naval surveillance
A small underwater drone designed in Perth that harnesses artificial intelligence (AI) has been showcased in the United Kingdom where the Royal Navy is considering using the technology to enhance anti-submarine warfare. The makers of the "SG-1 Fathom" autonomous glider, which has been fitted with European developed software and AI, claim it can analyse and classify acoustic data up to 40 times faster than human operators. Capable of long endurance missions lasting up to three months, the uncrewed gliders are designed to be mass-produced and deployed in large swarms to provide wide-scale ocean surveillance through constellations of sensors beneath the surface. Over the weekend, the system was demonstrated at HM Naval Base Portsmouth in front of the Royal Navy's fleet commander, Vice-Admiral Andrew Burns, alongside officials and industry representatives, but precise details of the event remain undisclosed. Last year West Australian-based Blue Ocean Marine Tech Systems teamed up with European defence technology company Helsing to develop the its SG-1 Fathom glider with acoustic sensors and an advanced software platform and AI system known as Lura. Blue Ocean Group managing director and former Royal Australian Navy officer Mike Deeks says one of the principal design factors for the new platform was to keep the unit price down so it could be mass produced and deployed quickly. "We decided to develop this platform because we saw a future that required multiple vehicles at sea swarming, or in a fleet working together, and there wasn't anything on the market that could do that. "Because they are propelled only by adjustments to their buoyancy, even when they're not sitting on the seabed, they have an endurance measured in months, not days or weeks," the former submariner tells the ABC. Australian-based Helsing director Rob Wilson says the uncrewed technology can enhance the work of existing traditional naval platforms by providing scale and persistence at a fraction of the cost of traditional anti-submarine warfare. "Is the SG-1 Fathom on its own the whole answer? Not yet — but it's certainly pointing at an autonomous future that allows us to affordably monitor, deter and protect across our vast maritime approaches," the former commander says. "Small is sexy; AI is giving us the compute now to deliver incredible capability in tiny packages, and tiny packages are affordable at scale — they're quick to produce, so they not only give you extraordinary capability, but capability that is resilient in supply." Representatives of the Royal Australian Navy have also recently received briefings on the full classified capabilities of the SG-1 Fathom and Lura system, which the ABC has been told could eventually carry out a wider set of undersea missions. For several years the Australian Defence Force has trialled larger autonomous maritime platforms in exercises off the coast, but the makers of the SG-1 Fathom hope their technology could eventually be adopted by all three AUKUS partners.
Scotsman
14-05-2025
- Science
- Scotsman
"Secret weapon" being tested for Royal Navy to hunt Russia submarines
A 'secret weapon' is being developed which the Royal Navy can use to deal with Russian submarines. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... AI sensory technology that was originally used to track whales is set to be installed on underwater drones tasked with patrolling British waters. As reported in The Times, it's hoped a recent technological advancement can be used by Royal Navy technicians to 'illuminate' the oceans and make it easier to hunt submarines. Autonomous mini-hunter submarines could use artificial intelligence to identify sounds and movements under the ocean. The Lura system, developed by European defence company Helsing, can tell the difference between two ships of the same class by analysing acoustic waves. This would allow personnel to be freed from trawling through the data, speeding up reaction time so capabilities can be deployed faster. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad HMS Tyne with Russian Kilo-class submarine Krasnodar in the background. | Royal Navy / SWNS It can be used to identify submarines, tankers, passenger vessels and vessels belonging to the Russian shadow fleet. Gundbert Scherf, co-founder of Helsing, told The Times: 'We must harness new technologies to keep pace with the threats against our critical infrastructure, national waters and way of life.' Autonomous Royal Navy trials The Royal Navy has been consistently investing in autonomous technology and testing various types of equipment. Surface vessels which can sail by themselves have been trialled, and a new team has been formed to trial the latest autonomous military capabilities. The new Disruptive Capabilities and Technologies Office (DCTO) will include specialists from NavyX, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer, and the Navy AI cell, will make up the new formation. XV Patrick Blackett, an experimental ship based at Portsmouth Naval Base, will be used as a hotbed for various tests. Rear Admiral James Parkin, the Royal Navy's Director Develop, previously said: 'This innovation will ensure that the Royal Navy will be better positioned to work with other areas in Defence, and our allies and partners, to learn the lessons from modern conflict, and ensure we introduce cutting edge capabilities into the front line at the speed of relevance. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'In this way the Royal Navy will harness the best of today's technology in order to disrupt faster than our adversaries and remain ready to fight and win on day one of any future conflict.'
