Sagar Defence joins hands with Liquid Robotics to produce USVs

New Delhi | India's Sagar Defence on Tuesday announced a partnership with Liquid Robotics, a Boeing company, for co-development and co-production of scaled Uncrewed Surface Vehicle (USV) systems.

The announcement came three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden, in their talks in Wilmington, welcomed teaming of the two companies.

Sagar Defence and Liquid Robotics have solidified their collaboration through an exclusive teaming agreement, jointly pursuing co-development of solutions and large-scale co-production of USV systems for undersea domain awareness for the Indian Navy, the two firms said.

Following the Modi-Biden talks on Saturday, a joint fact-sheet said the two leaders "welcomed efforts to expand defence industrial partnerships, including the teaming of Liquid Robotics and Sagar Defence Engineering for the co-development and co-production of unmanned surface vehicle systems that strengthen undersea and maritime domain awareness." The USVs are generally known as sea drones or platforms without crew which operate on the surface of the water.

Sagar Defence and Liquid Robotics are planning to co-produce the first set of USVs by next year.

Nikunj Parashar, co-founder of Sagar Defence, said: "Our co-development and co-production partnership is a testament to the capabilities of Indian defence firms manufacturing and delivering at global benchmarks." "This also underscores both partners' efforts to help bolster India's vision of Aatmanirbharta (self-reliance) in defence, while advancing regional and global maritime security," he added.

Salil Gupte, president of Boeing India, and South Asia, said the co-development and co-production of scaled USV systems programme with an Indian entity demonstrated "our commitment and ability to help realise the government's vision for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat in defence." "Boeing continues to lead the way in having built local capabilities across manufacturing, design, engineering, and skilling in India with Indian partners over decades -- and that foundation positions us strongly for more such initiatives in the future," he said.

Shane Goodenough, CEO of Liquid Robotics, said the collaboration marks a new beginning.

"Teaming up with Sagar Defence marks a new era for our bilateral defence cooperation and enables us to grow our existing Wave Glider operations in India," he said.

"We are very pleased to join forces with the skilled team at Sagar, who has a proven record of successfully integrating uncrewed systems into active defense missions," he said.

Sagar Defence is a leading provider of USVs to the Indian Navy, with core competencies in vehicle control systems, sensor integration, and unmanned system manufacturing.

Liquid Robotics has more than 15 years of experience, designing and manufacturing USVs along with a broad portfolio of proven commercial and defense solutions.

The partnership between Sagar Defence and Liquid Robotics leverages draws expertise from both companies, said an official of the Indian company.