Miles Jamison 
Metron, a company offering autonomous software for defense applications, has received a prototype other transaction agreement from the Defense Innovation Unit to develop an autonomous undersea vehicle ready for demonstration and rapid deployment.
The prototype OTA, awarded through the Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform, or CAMP, program, is intended to enhance U.S. undersea capabilities and support evolving Department of War priorities, Metron said Wednesday. The unmanned underwater vehicle is expected to handle payloads of different sizes, perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, operate in GPS-denied environments, and conduct bathymetric surveys and mapping, Breaking Defense reported.
What Is Metron’s Lancet Prototype AUV System?
The effort will produce the Lancet system, which integrates Metron’s Resilient Mission Autonomy software, Cellula Robotics’ Guardian AUV, Integer Technologies’ DIGIT predictive mission health manager and payload technologies from General Dynamics Applied Physical Sciences. The vehicle is designed for long endurance, flexible payload capacity and sustained operational persistence in contested maritime environments.
The Lancet system features modular integration, onboard adaptive planning and a design-for-production approach supporting long-range, multi-payload deployment and commercial-level logistics.
“Our Lancet prototype delivers a scalable, cost-effective system with the reach, reliability, persistence, and payload delivery capability needed to be operationally relevant,” said Van Gurley, CEO of Metron.
“By integrating proven hardware around a mature autonomy core and designing the manufacturing plan to support rapid scaling, we are creating an autonomous force multiplier for the undersea domain,” Gurley added.
