Israel Aerospace, Hellenic Aerospace Industry Partner to Offer BlueWhale Submarine to Greek Navy

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today during the DEFEA defense exhibition in Athens to jointly promote the BlueWhale autonomous submarine system to the Hellenic Navy.

Under the MoU, HAI will play a key role in the production and technological development of the BlueWhale system. The Greek company will benefit from access to IAI’s underwater technologies and contribute its own experience in building complex defense platforms.

The BlueWhale is an autonomous, uncrewed underwater vehicle developed by IAI. At 10.9 meters in length and weighing 5.5 tons, it is capable of executing a wide array of covert missions, including intelligence-gathering above and below water, detection of submarines and naval mines, and acoustic signal monitoring.

IAI says the BlueWhale can handle many of the operational roles of a traditional manned submarine, without the cost or risk to onboard personnel. The system has logged thousands of underwater hours across a range of mission profiles, including Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), Electronic Support Measures (ESM), and Mine Countermeasures (MCM).