Product profile
A18-M
A18-M is Exail's mid-size autonomous underwater vehicle for long-endurance mine detection, classification and seabed survey missions.
Facts
- Company
- Exail
- Product type
- auv
- Status
- commercial
- Primary capability
- underwater_survey
- Website
- https://www.exail.com/product/a18-m-autonomous-underwater-vehicle
About A18-M
A18-M is Exail's mid-size autonomous underwater vehicle for mine and unexploded-ordnance detection, classification and localisation. The 4.5-metre vehicle carries the UMISAS interferometric synthetic-aperture sonar and can add multibeam, volume-search, camera or environmental sensors. Its navigation stack combines inertial navigation, Doppler velocity logging and GPS fixes at the surface, with obstacle avoidance and acoustic communications for subsea missions.
At a nominal three knots, A18-M can operate for up to 24 hours and survey 20 to 40 square kilometres, depending on mission conditions. Its sonar produces three-centimetre imagery across a swath of up to 360 metres, while onboard processing prepares data for transmission after resurfacing. The vehicle can deploy from shore, a mine-countermeasures ship or Exail's Inspector 125 uncrewed surface vessel and is included in European naval mine-warfare programmes.
Market context
https://zlsbkmaixmmnjrgpkcyp.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/robotics_assets/products/korthos-product-candidates-2026-08-21-batch-21/exail-a18-m-official-16x9.jpg, mid_size_autonomous_underwater_vehicle, autonomous_underwater_vehicle, 1600, 900, cde4e9142719dde5b957408feb4a54481c091dc2d10328ad0d2c013e94c9005c, reviewed_16x9_official_media, false, Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, robotics_assets, https://www.exail.com/product/a18-m-autonomous-underwater-vehicle, official, https://zlsbkmaixmmnjrgpkcyp.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/robotics_assets/products/korthos-product-candidates-2026-08-21-batch-21/exail-a18-m-official-16x9.jpg, 2026-08-24T10:50:29.837Z, generic_marine, products/korthos-product-candidates-2026-08-21-batch-21/exail-a18-m-official-16x9.jpg, 2026-08-21, autonomous_underwater_vehicle, false, false, source_photo_16x9_crop, 2026-08-24T10:50:29.837Z, retained_exact_a18_m_operational_underwater_photo_full_vehicle_legible_native_1600x900_edge_to_edge_no_padding_or_letterbox, marine_underwater, 2026-08-27T19:10:24.094Z, 2026-08-26T11:03:06.125Z, source_photo_16x9_crop, Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, marine_underwater, true, verified existing controlled taxonomy...
Summary
Type: Minehunting AUV
Core: A18-M
Function: Mine detection
Audience: Naval teams
Specifications
- dimensions
- Length from 4.5 m; body diameter 46.5 cm
- features
- survey area: 20–40 km² per mission; area coverage rate 1.9 km²/h at 4 kn
- max_speed
- speed: Maximum; nominal 3–5 kn
- onboard_processing
- Raw sonar imagery pre-processed onboard before transfer to the command centre
- operating_environment
- Naval teams
- payload_capacity
- sonar payload: UMISAS interferometric synthetic-aperture sonar; optional MBES or VSS
- power
- energy storage: 10.9 kWh
- range
- operating depth: Operating range 3–300 m
- runtime_hours
- Up to 24 hours at approximately 1.54 m/s h
- sensor_system
- sonar resolution: 3 × 3 cm; maximum 360 m swath
- system_role
- Minehunting AUV
- use_cases
- Mine detection
- weight_kg
- From 442 kg
Operations
- Deployment environment
- underwater, coastal_water, offshore_operations
- Primary user
- naval_operators, marine_survey_teams, offshore_operators, subsea_service_providers
- Workflow
- underwater_survey, mine_detection, sonar_imaging, autonomous_navigation
- Interaction model
- autonomous_mission_execution, payload_integration, remote_supervision, underwater_data_collection
- Mobility class
- untethered_underwater_robot, autonomous_underwater_vehicle
- Product detail
- https://zlsbkmaixmmnjrgpkcyp.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/robotics_assets/products/korthos-product-candidates-2026-08-21-batch-21/exail-a18-m-official-16x9.jpg, mid_size_autonomous_underwater_vehicle, autonomous_underwater_vehicle, 1600, 900, cde4e9142719dde5b957408feb4a54481c091dc2d10328ad0d2c013e94c9005c, reviewed_16x9_official_media, false, Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, robotics_assets, https://www.exail.com/product/a18-m-autonomous-underwater-vehicle, official, https://zlsbkmaixm...
Recent verified events
- French DGA selects up to 16 extended A18-M vehicles — 2024-11-07