UK MoD, ASV sign licencing deal

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and ASV Global have entered into a licencing agreement under which the company will use its Advanced Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) Capability technology, the MoD announced on 28 September.

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory’s (Dstl) technology transfer arm, Ploughshare Innovations, has signed the licensing contract with ASV. The licence concerns Dstl’s autonomous navigation system that enables USVs to operate safely at both high and low speeds.

ASV received funding from Dstl for the development of advanced marine autonomy software. Under the agreement, ASV can expand the use of the software while Dstl retains hold of the intellectual property rights.

This licencing agreement enables ASV Global to utilise this technology throughout its current product range of military and commercial USVs.

Philip Smith, ship systems and integrated survivability programme manager at Dstl, said: ‘There is a need for more efficient platforms with greater automated systems across all domains – air, land and sea – so there are many potential routes for this software.’

ASV plans to integrate the software onto its ASView control system for a demonstration at the Unmanned Warrior event, which will be held in Scotland in October.