A mock-up of the Greyshark AUV displayed at IMDEX 2025 in Singapore. (Janes/Ridzwan Rahmat)

Germany's Euroatlas has successfully completed propulsion tests for its Greyshark autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and will now move on to carry out sensor trials of the equipment.

Speaking to Janes at the IMDEX 2025 naval and defence exhibition in Singapore, Euroatlas' overall project manager for the Greyshark project Niko Schmidt disclosed that these sensor trials will be carried out at sea to begin validating the various functions envisioned for the Greyshark AUV.

These include mine warfare, monitoring of underwater infrastructure, intelligence gathering on vessel activities, and detection of potentially hostile underwater threats.

The trials are presently scheduled to take place in May, Schmidt said.

The Greyshark is an under-development AUV with a length of 6.5 m, a diameter of 1.5 m, and a weight of 3,500 kg. It currently has a depth rating of 650 m but the long-term goal is to increase this to 4,000 m.

Given its non-metallic and non-pressurised hull, the Greyshark AUV is said to have a low own-sonar signature, which increases the accuracy of the various sensors that it can be fitted with.

These include an electromagnetic sensor array (EMSA), a synthetic aperture sonar (SAS), a multibeam forward-looking sonar (FLS), a laser imaging and measurement system (LIMS), a multibeam echosounder (MBES), and a multispectral high-resolution underwater camera.

To communicate with the operator and other units, the AUV is equipped with a telescopic antenna system with built-in military radio and an anti-jam global navigation satellite services (GNSS) system that assists the Greyshark in carrying out its autonomous sailing operations.

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