SOURCE: RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG
The first design of the Jalkapi Extra-Large Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV), a cutting-edge asset under development for the Indian Navy by Hyderabad-based Rekise Marine Private Limited, surfaced at Aero India 2025, held in Bengaluru from February 10-14. Offering a sneak peek into India’s most ambitious unmanned submarine project, the Jalkapi underscores the nation’s push toward indigenous defense innovation. As the largest and most complex unmanned underwater platform in India’s defense ecosystem, this 20-ton behemoth promises to redefine underwater surveillance and strategic operations in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
Displayed as a detailed scale model at the Rekise Marine pavilion, the Jalkapi XLUUV measures 11 meters in length with a sleek, cylindrical hull designed for stealth and hydrodynamic efficiency. Displacing 20 tons, it is engineered to operate at depths of up to 300 meters—an impressive feat for an Indian-built autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Its endurance, ranging from 30 to 45 days at sea, rivals that of Boeing’s Orca XLUUV, a benchmark in the global unmanned underwater domain. This capability is enabled by an onboard diesel generator that recharges its lithium-ion battery pack, allowing the Jalkapi to surface autonomously, replenish power, and dive back into its mission without human intervention.
The design, rooted in specifications provided by the Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design (Submarine Design Group) or DND-SDG, integrates a robust suite of sensors and payloads. These include electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) cameras, multi-beam echo sounders for seabed mapping, passive sonar arrays for obstacle avoidance, and Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth (CTD) sensors for oceanographic data collection. The Jalkapi’s autonomous navigation system, built on the ROS2/DDS (Robot Operating System 2/Data Distribution Service) framework, ensures seamless integration of these subsystems, enabling fully autonomous operations over extended durations.
Rekise Marine secured the Jalkapi contract through an open competition under the Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) Aditi 1.0 initiative, launched by the Ministry of Defence in 2024. This victory highlights the growing role of India’s private sector and MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) in defense R&D. Beating out larger competitors, Rekise—a robotics-focused firm with a lean team—demonstrated its technical prowess in underwater automation, collaborating closely with the Indian Navy to refine the DND-SDG’s preliminary design into a functional prototype.
Unlike smaller AUVs in India’s arsenal, such as the 8-ton High Endurance Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (HEAUV), the Jalkapi’s 20-ton displacement and larger payload capacity open possibilities for diverse roles. These could include anti-submarine warfare (ASW) support, mine countermeasures, and electronic support measures (ESM) to detect enemy signals.
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