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“Autonomous maritime interdiction”: Pelagon rethinks naval protection
Pelagon wants to upgrade the protection of ports, naval bases, and underwater infrastructure, shifting from simple “maritime awareness” to an autonomous maritime interdiction capability combining acoustic sensors, AI and an underwater interceptor, while keeping a human operator in the loop.
- Pelagon’s maritime interdiction system combines detection, identification and interception of threats at sea, under control of an operator.
- ORCA analyses the underwater environment to detect, locate and classify contacts.
© Pelagon
Surveillance of a maritime zone is no longer enough: for ports, naval bases, or subsea infrastructure, the challenge also lies in detecting underwater threats such as drones, divers or devices planted on the seabed. This is precisely where Pelagon steps in. The French company aims to move past the logic of “maritime awareness”— monitoring activities in a given area — towards maritime interdiction by detecting, classifying and, if necessary, intercepting a threat.
“We want to offer not just situational awareness, but also the means to act,” says Gauthier Bouxin, Co-founder and CEO of Pelagon. The former French Navy officer believes this approach should enable a shift from “occasional surveillance to permanent protection”.
One chain, from sensor to interception
The architecture developed by Pelagon relies on several building blocks. PEARLS is a network of seabed-installed sensors — mostly passive and acoustic — that continuously listen to the subsea environment and process data locally. This information feeds into ORCA, Pelagon’s maritime perception system, which can reliably detect, locate, and classify contacts. MARLIN, a wire-guided, operator-piloted craft, completes the chain with its interception capability.
“The goal is to detect the threat early, qualify it and give the operator what is needed to intervene,” explains Gauthier Bouxin. Pelagon now speaks of “autonomous maritime interdiction”, which does not mean that the system makes its own decision to engage a target. While surveillance and parts of the perception chain can be automated, a human operator makes the decision to intervene.
Initial deployments and next steps
The detection technology is already operating at sea. Pelagon cites an initial commercial deployment at a Mediterranean fish farm, which also serves as a validation testbed for gathering data in real-world conditions.
Targeted applications include commercial and military ports, naval bases, offshore energy sites and subsea cable landing points. The company now plans a series of sea trials and demonstrations with European navies, with pilot deployments planned in ports and infrastructure sites. MARLIN is at an earlier stage of development, though initial trials have been completed.
Pelagon’s approach will be presented at Euronaval with a demonstrator combining its detection, interception and acoustic environment modelling capabilities in a port setting, aiming to show concretely how the various modules articulate—from detection and identification through to intervention.
- Linda Verhaeghe
