Marine Instruments and Arkeocean Partner to Strengthen Subsea Surveillance

15 May 2025

(Image credit: Arkeocean)

Marine Instruments and Arkeocean have signed a collaboration agreement to jointly develop innovative solutions aimed at enhancing the security and monitoring of critical subsea assets with swarms of AUVs using acoustic technologies. The agreement, signed at Marine Instruments’ booth (8B04a) during the International Defense and Security Exhibition (FEINDEF), marks the beginning of a strategic alliance between two leading companies in the field of unmanned marine systems.

A Collaboration Framework

The partnership is structured around a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that defines key areas of cooperation, including critical subsea asset protection, threat management, and the deployment of autonomous maritime systems, with a strong focus on dual-use applications (civil and defense) and shared values of technological sovereignty and confidentiality.

Technological Integration on the Seafloor

At the core of this alliance lies the integration of Arkeocean’s passive AUV swarm system with Marine Instruments’ intelligent acoustic sensors and real-time satellite communication capabilities.

Arkeocean’s ocean-bottom swarm systems secure key subsea assets. The systems harness the power of a sophisticated swarm of heavy AUVs that form a secure network on the seafloor. Deployed at fixed positions, these robust units remain submerged for extended periods, providing continuous threat management.

Marine Instruments brings over 20 years of experience in the design and deployment of satellite-linked acoustic buoy networks, which are widely used in the sustainable fishing sector. Its technology has been tested in some of the world’s harshest oceanic environments, where high reliability, endurance, and autonomy are essential. Each year, thousands of Marine Instruments buoys are deployed by fleets across the globe, demonstrating the maturity and operational robustness of its real-time monitoring systems.

(Image credit: Arkeocean)

This synergy between a passive swarm-system and an active real-time sensing layer enables the combination of covert surveillance with responsive capability, delivering persistent and multidomain underwater situational awareness.

Applications in Defense

The collaboration spans multiple strategic sectors, including:

Defense and anti-submarine warfare (ASW): Integration into national and European programs for underwater domain awareness.
Protection of critical subsea assets: Autonomous monitoring of offshore platforms, ports, and subsea cables.
Aquaculture control: Use of autonomous vehicles and sensors for inspections in aquaculture farms, offshore wind farms, and other civil applications.

Both companies also envision collaborating on joint projects and validating their solutions in real-world environments.

“The complementarity between Arkeocean’s passive swarm system and our satellite- linked acoustic buoys opens a clear and tangible path toward effective, autonomous, and sustainable underwater surveillance solutions,” said Gabriel Gómez Celaya, CEO of Marine Instruments.

“We are also contributing our full industrial capacity and quality systems, which allow us to produce thousands of units each year with consistent performance and reliability, even in the most demanding ocean conditions,” Thierry Brizard, Co-Founder and President of Arkeocean, added: “We are proud to formalize our collaboration with Marine Instruments, a recognized leader in advanced marine technologies. This MOU represents a shared commitment to strengthening underwater defense capabilities through innovative solutions that enhance maritime situational awareness and operational readiness in challenging environments.”

The agreement was officially announced during FEINDEF 2025, where both companies showcased their technologies from the Marine Instruments booth, attracting strong interest from international delegations, the Spanish Navy, and key stakeholders in the maritime defense sector.