Exail wins major naval drone navigation order

French navigation technology manufacturer Exail has secured an order worth tens of millions of euros to equip an unnamed navy’s entire fleet of uncrewed surface vessels with Marins inertial navigation systems, extending the company’s military navigation business into a fleet-wide maritime autonomy programme.

Exail disclosed the contract on 21 October 2026, describing it as one of the largest navigation systems orders in its history. The agreement covers equipment from the Marins product family, although the customer, number of vessels, selected performance grade and installation schedule have not been identified.

The systems will provide position, heading, attitude and velocity information to vessels required to navigate without an onboard crew. Their inertial sensing capability is particularly relevant when global navigation satellite system signals are degraded, jammed or spoofed, preventing ordinary satellite receivers from supplying reliable position information.

As naval organisations introduce larger numbers of uncrewed platforms, navigation accuracy becomes a requirement for the entire vessel control architecture. Route following, heading control, obstacle avoidance and the coordination of movements all depend on sufficiently reliable information about where the vessel is, how it is oriented and how its movement is changing.

Inertial navigation equipment measures motion rather than deriving every position update from an external transmission. Gyroscopes detect rotational movement, while accelerometers measure acceleration. Processing equipment combines the measurements with an initial estimate of the vessel’s state to calculate changes in orientation, velocity and position over time.

Marins systems use fibre-optic gyroscopes, in which light travels in opposite directions through coils of optical fibre. Rotation produces a measurable difference between the paths through an effect known as the Sagnac effect, allowing the equipment to estimate angular movement without the mechanically rotating sensing assemblies used in some earlier technologies.

Exail’s design combines these optical measurements with accelerometers and navigation processing. The absence of moving parts within the gyroscope sensing assembly can reduce particular wear and maintenance mechanisms, while the overall equipment still requires electrical power, environmental protection, inspection and appropriate configuration control.

A vessel’s heading, roll and pitch are important for navigation as well as the operation of other systems. Changes in attitude can affect the interpretation of measurements from installed sensors, while heading information contributes to the control of propulsion and steering equipment. Navigation data must consequently remain consistent with the systems using it.

Satellite navigation ordinarily provides a useful external position reference, allowing inertial estimates to be corrected as small measurement errors accumulate. When that reference disappears, the inertial system can continue calculating movement, but the estimated position progressively diverges from the vessel’s true location unless suitable correction information becomes available.

The rate of that divergence depends on the performance of the installed sensors, the processing methods and the availability of other measurements. Exail offers several Marins grades with different published navigation characteristics. The October contract does not identify which grade was ordered, so performance figures associated with an individual model cannot be assigned to the customer’s vessels.

Additional information can support navigation when satellite signals are unavailable. Depending on the platform and installation, measurements from speed sensors or other references can help constrain the inertial calculation. Processing software must account for the reliability of those measurements rather than accepting every external input as accurate.

Jamming and spoofing present different problems. Jamming introduces interference that prevents a receiver from obtaining usable satellite signals, while spoofing attempts to supply misleading information that can produce an incorrect navigation solution. Independent inertial measurements provide a reference against which unexpected satellite-derived changes may be assessed, although their presence does not guarantee protection against every interference condition.

An uncrewed vessel introduces particular requirements for handling those faults. A crewed ship may have personnel available to investigate conflicting navigation information, compare instruments and alter the operating procedure. An autonomous platform instead requires defined software responses when measurements become unreliable or the uncertainty in its estimated position increases.

Those responses may involve changes to the permitted operating mode or intervention by a remote operator, depending on the vessel’s approved control architecture. Exail has not disclosed the customer’s autonomy software or the procedures governing navigation faults, so the precise operational response cannot be inferred from the supply of Marins equipment alone.

The interface between the inertial unit and the vessel’s control systems is another part of the engineering work. Measurements must be transmitted with appropriate timing and status information, allowing receiving equipment to distinguish a current, valid estimate from information affected by a fault or an interruption in communications.

Navigation data can also support radar, electro-optical sensors and other maritime equipment whose measurements depend on the vessel’s orientation. Maintaining consistent reference information across those systems requires suitable installation, calibration and integration testing, particularly where equipment from different suppliers is connected through the platform’s onboard network.

Fleet-wide deployment adds manufacturing and support considerations. Equipment delivered for several vessels must conform to the approved technical baseline, while software versions, calibration information and maintenance records need to be controlled. Differences between successive installations can complicate support if the configuration of each unit is not properly documented.

Exail develops and manufactures substantial parts of its inertial technology, including fibre-optic gyroscopes, accelerometers, electronics and navigation software. This gives the company direct engineering responsibility for components and processing functions central to system performance, although it has not disclosed the manufacturing schedule or supplier allocation for the new order.

The Marins product family is established across military surface ships and submarines. Exail says its navigation technologies are used by more than 50 navies, providing experience in equipment support and integration under demanding maritime conditions.

The company also reports that its navigation technology equips approximately 80% of autonomous underwater vehicles and remotely operated vehicles worldwide. That manufacturer-stated market estimate concerns a different category of maritime equipment and should not be interpreted as its share of the uncrewed surface vessel market.

Unlike an order for complete autonomous vessels, the October agreement concerns navigation equipment installed within a broader customer programme. Exail has not disclosed whether the receiving vessels are already operating, undergoing modification or still in construction, leaving the relationship between equipment delivery and fleet deployment unresolved.

The contract establishes a substantial manufacturing and systems integration commitment for the Marins range. Subsequent delivery and acceptance milestones will determine when the equipment becomes available to the customer, with final navigation performance dependent on the selected configuration and its integration with each vessel’s control systems.