Magnet Defense has unveiled its autonomous maritime platform following over two years of development.
The company, which focuses on developing a fully autonomous maritime platforms for national security missions. invested more than $50m in the designing, building, and validating of its first uncrewed surface vessel (USV), the M48.
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The 48 metre autonomous research vessel has completed more than 32,000 nautical miles and spent 390 days at sea.
The M48 Fleet USV operates autonomously using AI and incorporates modular sensor suites, machine learning, and edge processing.
Magnet Defense stated that its vessels can function independently in high-risk areas, providing maritime intelligence, surveillance, missile defence, logistics support, electronic warfare, and anti-submarine warfare capabilities.
The M48 demonstrated navigation compliance and endurance across various sea conditions, including multi-day operations in Sea State 7 and several hours during Sea State 9.
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By GlobalDataAccording to Magnet Defense, recent increases in global tensions are leading to higher demand for uncrewed maritime systems.
Magnet Defense stated: “Traditional manned multi-mission ships are too costly and scarce for many modern defence missions, driving a shift toward low-cost, autonomous platforms with rapid response times, distributed assets, and enhanced threat assessment capabilities.”
The M48 platform is designed with containerised mission payloads and features intended for rapid threat recognition and automated weapon pairing while maintaining operator-in-the-loop mission control.
The company indicates that these USVs include redundancies to support long missions without maintenance as well as swift turnaround times at base.
