Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) developer Forum Energy Technologies (FET) reports that its subsea division has been contracted to supply an ROV to the Salvage and Marine Operations (SALMO) unit of the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD). The vehicle is scheduled for delivery to SALMO in 2025, and accompanying sea trials are planned in UK waters.

Under the terms of the contract, FET will also provide the SALMO unit with two years of technical support, including supply of spares and training packages.

The drone will predominantly be used for wreck surveys and salvage response tasks, and will be deployable from various vessel types. FET comments: “A previously supplied FET work-class ROV [a 2.8m x 1.7m, thruster-powered XLX-C model] was deployed by SALMO in January 2024 to successfully recover the bell of USS Jacob Jones – the first US Navy destroyer to be sunk during wartime – from the depths near the Isles of Scilly after 107 years.” USS Jacob Jones was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1917, resulting in the loss of 66 crew members, and its wreck remained at a depth of 100m until the SALMO operation.

Andy Liddell, head of SALMO, says: “A momentous amount of work has gone into preparing what has been a complex contract in a very short time. The project team have pulled together and demonstrated a holistic and agile route to procurement.”