The move builds on a year of heightened industry engagement, culminating in a technology demonstration onboard a 122 m-long Frigate at NATO’s largest Naval exercise, REPMUS. This is preceded by a demonstration to the US Navy in Newport in August, and a recent showcase to a UK defense prime for their counter-USV program. The company has also showcased its technology to other NATO Navies and defense primes through the first phase of NATO’s DIANA innovation framework, underlining its growing operational relevance.
Zelim’s new business unit consolidates all defense activities under one structure, enabling the Edinburgh-based company to respond faster to opportunities, adapt products to military requirements, and provide dedicated customer support.
“Over the past 12 months, interest in our technology from defense stakeholders has grown dramatically,” said Sam Mayall, CEO of Zelim. “We’ve had direct approaches from Navies, invitations to participate in high-profile trials, and requests from prime contractors to collaborate. The defense business unit is our way of scaling up to meet demand from Navies around the world.”
Driving demand is Zelim’s flagship product, ZOE, which was originally developed for man-overboard (MOB) detection and delivers continuous, AI-powered surveillance of a vessel’s surrounding maritime environment. The ZOE product suite is now being expanded to include ZOE Shield, which provides 360-degree perimeter surveillance for detecting unmanned surface vessels (USVs) and other threats to military assets, including passive detection in radar-denied environments, and ZOE Lookout, which enhances maritime situational awareness by detecting hazards.
Zelim Defense. (Video credit: Zelim)
Andy Tipping, Zelim’s Business Development Director, said: “Defense customers want advanced solutions they can use now, not in five years. With a dedicated, experienced defense team in place, we deliver confidence to the sector that we are ready to meet its immediate requirements.”
Zelim’s new defense division will also oversee the adaptation of its Swift recovery platform and Guardian unmanned vessel for military use, expanding its offering from detection to recovery. Swift can retrieve people or mission-critical equipment in challenging conditions, while Guardian enables autonomous recovery operations beyond line-of-sight.
“This is about readiness on every front—technology, people, and processes,” Tipping said. “We are positioning Zelim as a trusted partner, able to deliver quickly and support defense customers for the long term.”
The decision comes amid a broader shift in defense procurement towards faster adoption of mature, commercially proven capabilities. Navies worldwide are seeking solutions that can be integrated without the delays of traditional development cycles – a trend Zelim is well-positioned to meet.
Mayall added: “The interest we’ve seen from the global defense sectors is not speculative, it’s concrete, and it’s growing. This new division is our response: a dedicated, fully resourced commitment to delivering maritime situational awareness and recovery capabilities wherever and whenever they are needed.”
