Oceaneering Wins Contract to Build Freedom™ AUV and Remote Operations Center for U.S. Navy

Oceaneering International, Inc. announced today that its Subsea Robotics and Aerospace and Defense Technologies divisions have secured a multi-million-dollar contract from the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to build a Freedom™ Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and establish an Onshore Remote Operations Center (OROC) for the U.S. Navy.

This contract underscores Oceaneering’s capability to apply technology originally developed for the offshore energy sector to other industries, including defense. The AUV will be manufactured at the company's facility in Morgan City, Louisiana.

Peter Buchanan, Senior Director of Oceaneering’s Subsea Robotics division, commented, “We are thrilled to collaborate with the DIU and the U.S. Navy. This contract enables us to bring energy industry-driven commercial technology to the U.S. Department of Defense to meet subsea security requirements.”

Martin McDonald, Senior Vice President for Subsea Robotics at Oceaneering, noted, “Our global reach and supply chain enable us to maintain a 99% uptime for the world’s largest fleet of work-class subsea robots. We continue to leverage our facilities and supply chain to manufacture vehicles at scale, as we’ve done for the energy sector.”

Oceaneering has remotely operated commercial subsea robotic systems from OROCs since 2015, completing over 120,000 hours of remote operations. This new contract will extend this commercial expertise to the U.S. Navy.