Page 35: of Marine Technology Magazine (Jul/Aug 2026)

¦ Fincantieri ¦ Cellula Robotics ¦ NORBIT research and faculty expertise, and on- ¦ Fincantieri Strikes Four Deals in ed to serve both defense and commer- going research and long-term capabil- $687M Underwater Expansion cial markets, including critical subsea ity development. Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri has infrastructure protection, maritime se-

Through the partnership, BCIT’s new agreed to acquire majority stakes in curity and o? shore services.

Simulation Center will be built around four companies for an initial expen- the Kongsberg Maritime simulation diture of about $687 million (€600 ¦ Cellula Robotics, Metron to Ad- technology, providing a synthetic en- million), expanding its capabilities in vance Undersea Capability for the vironment, development tools, and marine drones, subsea services and un- US Defense Market

APIs to support collaborative applied derwater communications across com- Cellula Robotics US Inc. and Metron, research with Canadian industry, aca- mercial and defense markets. Inc. have signed a 10-year agreement demia, defense, and public-sector The agreements cover acquisitions of to deliver a combined solution for the stakeholders. It will serve as a platform majority stakes in Next Geosolutions, United States defense market, bringing for prototyping, human factor studies, WSense, Graal Tech, and Defcomm, together Cellula's commercial o? -the- testing, and accident and incident anal- which will be integrated into Fincant- shelf (COTS) long-endurance autono- ysis, including de-risking new con- ieri’s Underwater technological hub. mous underwater vehicle (AUV) plat- cepts in areas such as maritime safety, Next Geosolutions, listed on Euronext forms with Metron's adaptive mission autonomy, cyber resilience, critical Growth Milan, provides marine survey autonomy and undersea warfare and infrastructure, port development, and and geoscience services as well as o? - maritime domain expertise.

low- and zero-emission operations. shore construction support services. The agreement re? ects growing de-

The hub will also help accelerate com- WSense specializes in underwater mand in the US defense market for mercialization opportunities and sup- communications and the Internet of solutions that can move rapidly from port the development of sovereign Underwater Things, while Graal Tech program need to operational deploy-

Canadian capability in a strategically and Defcomm specialize in autono- ment, quickly scale, and deliver the important sector. mous underwater vehicles and autono- autonomy, endurance, reliability, and

The partners will implement a strate- mous surface vehicles, respectively. payload modularity necessary to be op- gic long-term capability to support sus- The transactions follow Fincantieri’s erationally relevant.

tainable and future-oriented maritime acquisition and integration of WASS The collaboration is designed around development. The technology partners in 2025 and Remazel in 2024. The ex- a modular, open-architecture approach will deliver the core systems, simula- panded underwater platform will com- that supports continued integration of tion environment, and technical exper- prise eight companies and about 1,500 third-party sensors, payloads, and mis- tise required to enable high realism, professionals across Italy, the UK, the sion systems, helping ensure the solu- scalability, and innovation across the Netherlands, Norway and the UAE. tion remains adaptable as technolo- project’s solutions. Fincantieri said the platform will com- gies evolve and customer requirements

To expand access and increase train- bine capabilities spanning hardware, change. ing capacity, the partnership will pro- software and telecommunications, un- vide licenses for cloud-based simula- derwater platforms and services, with ¦ NORBIT Acquires Water Linked tion systems, enabling BCIT to extend applications across conventional and NORBIT has acquired Trondheim- learning beyond the campus ties. unconventional underwater activities. based Water Linked, a provider of

The expanded capabilities are intend- underwater navigation and imaging www.marinetechnologynews.com 35

MTR #5 (34-47).indd 35 MTR #5 (34-47).indd 35 8/5/2026 10:56:30 AM8/5/2026 10:56:30 AM