Kongsberg Discovery and MacArtney enhancing defense, energy, and ocean science underwater menu

December 1, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Kongsberg Discovery, part of Norway’s Kongsberg Gruppen, has taken a step to combine its offering with MacArtney Underwater Technology to create a new level of turnkey capability in towed underwater sensing solutions for defense, energy, and ocean science spheres.

While disclosing a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) that will see all of its systems integrated onto MacArtney’s remotely operated towed vehicle (ROTV) platforms, Kongsberg Discovery underlines that this move brings the two technology players’ offers for defense, energy, and ocean science users worldwide into a single package.

Helge Uhlen, Vice President of OT Sales at Kongsberg Discovery, commented: “This partnership represents an important step toward delivering comprehensive solutions to our customers. By combining all our sonars, underwater positioning and navigation systems from Kongsberg Discovery with MacArtney’s platforms, we can now offer a unique blend of technology and flexibility.”

Kongsberg Discovery delivers high-performance underwater positioning and navigation systems, multibeam -and scientific echosounders, and synthetic aperture sonars, with solutions that are de facto standard tools for all high-end survey work.

On the other hand, MacArtney is said to have built a reputation as a pioneer in towing platforms, cables, and subsea communication systems, with its Focus series considered to be renowned for hydrodynamic stability, payload flexibility, and the ability to operate multiple instruments simultaneously at various depths and speeds.

Uhlen claims that applications include, but are not limited to, seafloor mapping, pipeline and cable inspection, wide-area search tasks, mine-countermeasures, and more. The flexibility of the solution allows for operations in either shallow coastal areas or at depths down to 1,000 meters, depending on the specific platform.

Collaboration in FOCUS: Turnkey performance from MacArtney and Kongsberg Discovery

Bjarke T. Ovesen, Sales Director of Naval at MacArtney, stated: “We look forward to working with Kongsberg Discovery to integrate their advanced sonars into our systems. This will provide our customers with significant added value in terms of precision and reliability and ensure they have the tools to succeed.”