Norwegian Kongsberg Eyes Hundreds of Low-Cost HUGIN UUVs a Year as US Navy Goes Hybrid

Norway's Kongsberg is exploring industrial production of several hundred lower-cost HUGIN autonomous underwater vehicles annually as the United States Navy expands experimentation with crewed-uncrewed undersea operations. The proposed approach would adapt established HUGIN navigation and autonomy technologies to platforms intended for larger inventories and more distributed missions than premium survey vehicles. Potential tasks include underwater reconnaissance and maritime sensing, with production economics and manufacturing scale central to the company's concept. These annual figures describe a capacity aspiration and possible market opportunity, not a Navy contract for hundreds of vehicles or confirmed deliveries.