The Oceanus17 ocean drone was built in Britain—it can remain on a mission for up to 100 days

The British company ZeroUSV has developed the Oceanus17, an ocean-class unmanned surface vehicle, which is set to begin sea trials in the near future.

The Defence Blog reported on this.

According to the media, the vessel has already passed factory inspections, after which the sea trial phase will begin.

At 17 meters long, the Oceanus17 is the largest unmanned vessel in ZeroUSV’s Oceanus lineup.

It is a further development of the 11.55-meter-long Oceanus12 model, which the company presented in early 2025.

The previous version had a range of about 2,000 nautical miles (approximately 3,700 kilometers) and could carry up to one metric ton of payload.

These performance metrics have been significantly improved in Oceanus17. Its payload capacity has been increased to 4,000 kilograms, and its range exceeds 5,000 nautical miles (approximately 9,260 kilometers).

The new vehicle is capable of autonomously performing missions in oceanic conditions for 50–100 days.

It features a cargo compartment designed to hold one standard ISO container, which is equipped with a separate 30-kilowatt power supply system.

It was previously reported that the United Kingdom plans to build six state-of-the-art “hybrid” ships designed to control unmanned systems and counter growing Russian activity at sea.

These ships are expected to enter service in the early 2030s.

The project will be one of the United Kingdom’s largest investments in the development of next-generation maritime capabilities in recent decades.