Metrology Technician

A UK company just showed a drone boat that takes loitering munitions, mini torpedoes, drones or sonobuoys as cassettes two people exchange in the field without touching the hull, and it says an Anduril ALTIUS has already gone out of one. Sep 9, at 8:00am ET If you ever owned a car with a tape deck, you already understand the pitch here. The hardware never changed. You pushed in a different cassette and the same machine did something new. The deck didn't care what was on the tape. SubSea Craft, a maritime tech company based in Portsmouth, England, announced on September 4 that its MARS drone boat now handles weapons exactly that way: as cassettes that slide into the hull and come back out, swapped by a two-person team wherever the boat happens to be deployed. The system's patent-pending, and SubSea Craft's announcement says a swap doesn't involve modifying the vessel itself. The company lists loitering munitions, miniature torpedoes, aerial drones and sonobuoys as potential cassettes, all delivered from the same hull. "Operators can swap cassettes quickly and easily," in the words of Tom Harkin, SubSea Craft's chief commercial officer. So why does a drone boat need a tape deck? Because bolting a new weapon onto a boat is normally a project, not a chore. Somebody has to engineer the mounts, run the wiring, integrate the software, and then prove at sea that none of it broke anything else. That work happens at a dock, it takes engineers, and it starts over with every new payload. So plenty of drone boats spend their whole careers doing the one job they were wired for on day one. The cassette moves all of that work into the box. The boat keeps one standard slot; the payload shows up already packaged to fit it. SubSea Craft says the point is cutting integration timelines so new payloads get to sea faster, and the field-swap part is what separates this from a shipyard upgrade. A two-person team handles it. That's the whole pitch. You've seen other answers to the same question here before. A British 56-footer Autonocion covered in August was built around a 20-foot shipping container slot, and Ukraine's newest Magura carries 18 interceptors in boxes bolted to its deck. The cassette is the smallest of the three approaches and arguably the most portable: a container needs a crane and a port, deck boxes are built around whatever sits inside them, and a cassette needs two people and wherever the boat already is. An Anduril ALTIUS has already gone out the slot. This isn't a concept render. SubSea Craft says the cassette system has already been used to integrate Anduril's ALTIUS, and it released an image that Naval News ran with a caption describing MARS launching the ALTIUS through the new system. SubSea Craft's own image says it happened. If you haven't met the ALTIUS, it's a tube-launched drone from Anduril that flies out, loiters, and either watches something or dives into it. Anduril builds it to launch from the ground, the air or the sea, so a tube sitting in a cassette is, frankly, about as natural a fit as this idea gets. What SubSea Craft hasn't said is when or where that launch happened, and I can't find a date or a location for it anywhere else. That's a fairly big blank in an announcement built around the event. So the launch stands confirmed by the company, and nobody's published a date. So how big is this boat, exactly? Here's the odd part: the company's MARS page doesn't publish the boat's dimensions today. It calls the craft low-signature and high-speed, says it went from design to the water within 100 days, and sums up the resume as built in the UK, trialed in open water in Australia with the Australian Maritime College, and tested with US payloads. SubSea Craft pitches it for maritime domain awareness, persistent surveillance, countering other unmanned systems, and full ISTAR work, which is the military's umbrella term for finding things, watching them and lining up a shot. SubSea Craft has put numbers on this hull before, though. You'll just have to go back to when the boat first got wet. A company official told the defense outlet Shephard that MARS reaches up to 30 knots (about 35 mph) and up to 300 nautical miles (roughly 345 miles), and reporting around the debut put the hull at about 19.7 feet (6 meters). None of that made the current spec sheet. The upgraded MARS went into production in May, and I'd treat all three figures as the company's claims for the first boat rather than measurements of the one now being built. Design to water From concept to floating, per SubSea Craft's own product page. Cassette swap team In the field, with no changes to the boat. Demonstrated with the Anduril ALTIUS. Claimed top speed About 35 mph, per an SSC official at the boat's debut. Not on the current spec sheet. Claimed range Roughly 345 statute miles, claimed for the original boat, not re-published for the production version. Compare that with how the neighbors do it. ZeroUSV cut a 20-foot container slot into a 56-foot hull; SubSea Craft's cassettes go into a boat roughly a third that length. The Magura MV11 hauls its 18 interceptor boxes on a 39-foot deck. A smaller hull gives up payload, sure, but it also buys a boat that'll launch from a bigger ship, work rivers as well as open water, and get rearmed on-site by the same two people. I suspect that last part's what the patent application is really about. SubSea Craft published the cassette announcement on September 4 with the ALTIUS already through the slot, and the upgraded MARS it slides into has been in production since May. Tom Harkin's team now gets to find out which cassette a customer asks for first. Frequently asked questions. AI-assisted contextual content, generated to enrich your reading. What operational roles can modular payload cassettes enable for unmanned surface vessels? Modular payload cassettes allow USVs to swiftly integrate mission-specific modules for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors; radio frequency decoys; signal intelligence equipment; communications relays; electronic warfare systems; and loitering munitions, enabling a single platform to adapt rapidly to diverse operational requirements in contested maritime environments. How do modular payload cassettes improve mission turnaround and logistics for USVs? By using a plug-and-play cassette system, operators can exchange payloads without modifying the vessel or requiring dockside alterations, significantly reducing reconfiguration time and simplifying supply chains by standardizing module interfaces. What are the primary technical challenges in developing cassette exchange mechanisms for maritime platforms? Key challenges include achieving watertight seals to prevent water ingress under wave impact and pressure fluctuations; ensuring materials and mechanical latches resist corrosion and biofouling in saltwater; and maintaining precise alignment and reliable mechanical engagement under dynamic sea states and vessel motion. What capabilities does the Anduril ALTIUS loitering munition bring when deployed from USVs? The Anduril ALTIUS-700M offers multispectral launch capability with up to 75 minutes of endurance, a range of approximately 100 miles, and a warhead payload capacity of about 33 pounds, providing USVs with expeditionary strike options at standoff distances. How do modular payload systems on USVs compare to modular payload concepts in unmanned aerial systems? While both platforms leverage standardized interfaces and interchangeable modules to streamline integration, maritime systems require enhanced waterproofing, corrosion resistance, and structural reinforcement against hydrodynamic forces, whereas aerial systems prioritize weight reduction, aerodynamic performance, and compliance with airworthiness regulations. What regulatory and safety considerations apply when equipping unmanned surface vessels with loitering munitions? Equipping USVs with weapons requires prior certification and registration, disarmament during trials, and authorization from naval or maritime authorities; compliance with technical-domain approvals for ordnance integration; and adherence to national code provisions governing military drone operations and weapons safety standards. This content was generated using AI and reviewed according to publisher guidelines. THE LOT via The Lot Agree or laugh out loud? 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Seraphis Group expands investment in Anduril Industries, signals continued focus on defence technology. FinanceWire Sep. 8, 2026, 12:32 PM ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, September 8th, 2026, FinanceWire Seraphis Group has expanded its investment position in Anduril Industries, marking a publicly disclosed development in the private investment group's activity across defence technology, aerospace, autonomous systems and artificial intelligence. The amount of the expanded investment and resulting ownership position were not disclosed. The investment places Anduril Industries within Seraphis Group's stated areas of continued investment consideration as the Group evaluates opportunities involving autonomous platforms, AI-enabled defence technologies, aerospace systems and national-security infrastructure. Expanded Anduril Position Seraphis Group describes the expanded Anduril position as part of a longer-term approach to capital allocation across public and private markets. The Group has historically maintained a limited public profile regarding individual portfolio positions, making the disclosure of the expanded investment a notable update concerning its investment activity. Anduril Industries, founded by Palmer Luckey, develops defence technology including autonomous systems, software and hardware for defence and government applications. The company has attracted substantial private-market investment in recent years. In June 2025, Anduril announced a $2.5 billion Series G financing round at a reported valuation of $30.5 billion. The financing reflected continued private-market interest in companies developing autonomous and software-enabled defence capabilities. Seraphis Group has not disclosed the amount allocated to its expanded Anduril position, the timing of the additional investment or the resulting percentage ownership. No specific future transaction has been announced. Investment Focus According to Seraphis Group, the expanded position is consistent with an investment focus that includes technology and artificial intelligence, healthcare, financial services, infrastructure, real estate, aerospace and defence. The Group states that additional opportunities are being evaluated across defence and aerospace technology, including autonomous and uncrewed air, maritime and ground systems; AI-integrated defence platforms; command and control infrastructure; civil and dual-use aerospace technologies; and businesses involved in national-security infrastructure. The areas under consideration reflect the Group's stated preference for investments that can be evaluated over longer time horizons. Seraphis has not announced a specific capital deployment target for defence or aerospace investments. Anduril's Technology Portfolio Anduril's operations include autonomous systems and software designed for defence applications. The company's Lattice platform connects sensors, systems and software for functions including detection, tracking, command and control, and autonomous operations. The company is also involved in autonomous systems across multiple operational environments. Its Ghost Shark autonomous undersea programme has been developed for the Royal Australian Navy, providing an example of the growing use of uncrewed systems in defence programmes. These activities correspond with several technology categories identified by Seraphis Group as areas of investment interest. The Group has not indicated that any additional investment in Anduril, partnership or transaction has been agreed beyond the expanded position announced in connection with this disclosure. Continued Evaluation of Opportunities Seraphis Group said the organisation will continue evaluating potential investments and partnerships involving defence, aerospace, autonomous systems and AI-enabled security technologies. Any future transactions will depend on individual investment considerations, including technology, business fundamentals, strategic relevance and applicable transaction requirements. The Group's stated capital-allocation approach emphasizes longer-term investment horizons and evaluation of businesses and assets across public and private markets. The approach is particularly relevant to sectors where product development, regulatory processes, government procurement and production scaling can involve extended timelines. No specific prospective investment has been identified by Seraphis Group, and no target amount for future deployment has been announced. The expanded Anduril position therefore represents a disclosed investment development while providing additional information about the sectors currently being evaluated by Seraphis Group. Further details regarding future investments will depend on individual transactions and any associated disclosure decisions. About Seraphis Group Seraphis Group is a global private investment group focused on deploying long-term capital across public and private markets. The Group evaluates investments across sectors including technology and artificial intelligence, healthcare, financial services, infrastructure, real estate, aerospace and defence. Seraphis Group states that its approach emphasizes fundamentals, long-term capital allocation and engagement with companies, management teams and strategic partners. Contact. Media Relations Seraphis Group [email protected] Sponsored Financial Content