Kongsberg Maritime has signed a contract with the shipyard Alcock Ashdown Ltd. of Gujarat, India, for advanced Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and subsea systems valued at approx. MNOK 350.

The equipment will be installed on six new surveying vessels that India's National Hydrographic Office has ordered from the shipyard.

"The core of our delivery to India will consist of HUGIN 1000 autonomous underwater vehicles, which will be used for seabed surveying. HUGIN AUVs are a world leader when it comes to detailed surveying of the seabed, and Kongsberg Maritime has been delivering HUGIN AUVs for more than 10 years," comments Sales & Marketing Manager Roar Marthiniussen of Kongsberg Maritime.

"This is by far the largest contract in this field to date. In addition to HUGIN, the order includes subsea positioning equipment, multibeam echosounders and underwater cameras," adds Marthiniussen.

HUGIN was developed through collaboration between the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, the Royal Norwegian Navy, Statoil and Kongsberg Maritime. Cooperation began in 1995, and the first HUGIN was put into commercial use in the North Sea in 1997.