DSEI 2025: Stingray naval drone made for critical seabed protection with modular sensors and 48 hour endurance.

During DSEI 2025 in London, on September 9, Army Recognition examined Skana Robotics’ Stingray autonomous underwater vessel. Stingray is a compact, loitering AUV intended for persistent ISR, anti-submarine screening, and the protection of critical seabed infrastructure such as pipelines and fiber-optic cables. After a series of incidents and near misses involving undersea infrastructure in busy littorals, operators are asking for autonomous assets that can hold a position quietly, conserve power, and then wake up to report or investigate without calling in a manned ship every hour. Stingray is pitched squarely at that requirement, and the hardware on display matched that brief.
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Stingray, Skana’s loitering AUV, is a compact sentinel for crowded littorals: diving to 300 meters, lingering up to 48 hours, with modular sensors and seabed anchoring to guard ports, cables, and submarine approaches, whispering alerts ashore (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).

The hull is a torpedo-shaped tube with a blunt sensor fairing at the nose and a shrouded propulsor at the tail. Length is about 2.35 meters, with a maximum body diameter close to 53 centimeters, and an all-up weight in the region of 170 kilograms. In practical terms, two or three people can move it with a small davit or a simple ramp. That size class lets the operator launch from a patrol craft, a workboat, a mother USV, or even from a pier with minimal gear. Short ventral fins and clustered control surfaces keep it stable at low speeds, which is the regime that matters for loiter tasks. Cruise speed is listed at about 4 knots, with a top speed near 12 knots for short repositioning runs. Range is quoted around 45 nautical miles, which is enough to reach a box, move within it, and come home without burning the battery on sprints. Operational depth is given as 300 meters. That covers the continental shelf and most infrastructure routes without forcing a deep-ocean build. Endurance is the headline number: 48 hours on station using lithium-ion energy storage. Real endurance always depends on how aggressively the thruster is used and what the payloads draw, but the figure points to a two-day sentinel rather than a quick survey craft.

A few enabling features make that endurance credible in practice. The concept anticipates slow station-keeping or outright seabed parking, which cuts energy use to a minimum while the sensors watch for acoustic or magnetic cues. When triggered by a timetable, a contact, or a command through a relay, the vehicle can wake and maneuver for reporting or inspection. The design language on the hull and access panels suggests modular payload bays. That allows a technician to swap between surveillance sonars, navigation and mapping kits, electronic intelligence sets, or infrastructure-watch packages between sorties. The company also hints at the ability to field a limited effector when the rules allow, which would expand the mission set from passive observation to marking or disabling a target device. It is a common tube that can be repurposed week to week without a long trip back to a depot.

The software layer is presented as a core part of the system rather than an add-on. Skana emphasizes a planning environment for fleet employment and a supervisory layer for execution that leans on modern robotics frameworks. The intent is to let operators define behaviors, boundaries, and responses in software and then push those rules to a group of vehicles. In effect, a Stingray can be tasked as part of a wider plan and left to operate within its box while staying in periodic contact through a gateway buoy, a nearby USV, or a surface craft. Teaming is the point: the AUVs handle the dull work below while manned units keep a light touch and step in when a contact requires a decision or legal authority.

The employment patterns are straightforward. A port security team can drop a Stingray near a breakwater or across a narrow approach and assign a patrol loop that intersects traffic heading for a restricted zone. The vehicle listens, builds a local acoustic picture, and flags anomalies that cross a virtual trip line. If something warrants it, the AUV climbs toward the surface to transmit a concise report and then returns to its watch. In an anti-submarine role, several units can sit along a likely transit lane and act as pickets, cueing a helicopter, a drone with a dipping sonar, or a fast patrol craft. The effect is a thin but persistent net that holds ground without putting a manned ship in the spotlight. Because the vehicle is small and quiet, it can work closer to civilian infrastructure without drawing attention, which is often the aim.

The logistics picture is one reason a system like this is attractive beyond navies. A 2.35 meter, 170 kilogram hull fits into the routines of coast guards and port operators. A small team can launch and recover it. Pre-positioned docking or charge points in a harbor allow quick turnarounds. On days when a longer reach is needed, a USV can carry a pair of vehicles to the operating box, serve as a communications node, and collect them at the end of the tasking. That mixed approach turns a handful of people into a near-continuous underwater presence. Maintenance, too, is sized for real piers rather than laboratory benches. The external connectors and panels indicate swaps can be done at the waterside without heavy tools.

Seabed infrastructure has moved from a quiet background topic to a visible concern. Submarine cables carry most international data traffic and many of the landing stretches run close to shore, where anchors drag and fishing gear snags. Energy lines are vital and politically sensitive. Some incidents are accidents, others remain publicly unattributed. Either way, the response has to be routine vigilance rather than episodic patrols. Small, persistent AUVs are one answer. They scale better than manned presence, they generate logs for later analysis, and they can be scattered across multiple sites without major infrastructure. The same logic appears in contested littorals where states shadow each other and run probing operations short of declared conflict. Early warning helps commanders buy time and avoids parking a ship in a spot where it is vulnerable.

On balance, Stingray reads as a practical entry in that space. The numbers are sensible for the size class. The loitering concept is clear. It is not a long-range ocean mapper or a high-speed chaser. It is a patient sentinel that sits, listens, and hands off when something crosses the line. The questions that matter will be answered in trials. How discreet is the vehicle when pushed to higher speeds. How quickly can crews reconfigure payloads during busy port days. How robust are anchoring and docking options in surge and silt. Those details decide whether a promising design becomes a dependable workhorse. For now, the direction is easy to read. Coastal forces want compact AUVs that can remain on station for roughly two days, wake reliably, and integrate into mixed teams. Stingray is built for exactly that requirement.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.