Aquabotix underwater drone added to GSA Schedule

An unmanned underwater vehicle made by Falls River, Mass.-based company Aquabotix has been approved for placement on the GSA Schedule for availability to federal agencies.

Aquabotix's Endura vehicle was also added to the GSA Advantage for federal procurement, which qualifies the underwater drone for purchase by state and local agencies.

Endura is built with a computer inside, auto controls in the software and lithium battery at a standard operational run time of four hours with AC power also available for continuous operation. The drone is designed for water inspection functions works to record, collect and analyze data sets collected from sensors in real time

This approval comes nearly one month after the Navy ordered a single drone from Aquabotix.

Underwater drones have become an area of increasing interest to the Navy as the branch plans to grow spending on undersea systems to $3 billion in future years, the Washington Post has reported.

Large defense companies have made acquisitions of underwater drone makers within the past year in an effort to position themselves for that growth. Such deals have included Boeing for Liquid Robotics, General Dynamics for Bluefin Robotics and L3 Technologies' twin buys of OceanServer and Open Water Power.