UK factory to build fleet of smart submarine-hunting drones for allied defense

Helsing, a European defense technology firm, has opened the UK’s first factory dedicated to producing AI-enabled submarine-hunting drones, called the SG-1 Fathom, in Plymouth. The 18,000-square-foot Resilience Factory will serve both as a manufacturing site and a Maritime Center of Excellence, focusing on research, development, and mass production of these autonomous underwater gliders. The SG-1 Fathom is compact—6.3 feet long, 0.91 feet in diameter, and weighing 132 pounds—designed for easy deployment and recovery by small crews from commercial or military vessels. Its key strength lies in endurance, capable of operating for up to three months, patrolling discreetly in swarms or holding position on the seabed across vast underwater areas. The SG-1 Fathom drones integrate with Helsing’s Maritime AI platform, Lura, which uses a large acoustic model to detect and classify vessels in real time, even in low-bandwidth environments