Deep Ocean Search to add hybrid ROV/AUV to its fleet
Deep Ocean Search (DOS) says that it plans to integrate a Saab Seaeye Sabertooth 3,000 msw (meters seawater) hybrid ROV/AUV into its operational fleet, sometime in 3Q 2026.
The Sabertooth operates in both fully autonomous AUV mode (long-range survey missions, up to 50 km per dive, ~20 h endurance) and tethered ROV mode (real-time video, close-range inspection, intervention) — switchable within the same deployment.
DOS says that the Sabertooth will extend its subsea service portfolio along with its Mariner XL WROV (work-class ROV). If deployed alongside its Hugin 6000 AUV, DOS says that it can now offer the industry a rapidly deployable platform for survey, inspection and IMR from nearshore to 3,000 msw depth.
DOS says that it will deploy it for:
- Oil and gas – pipeline and riser inspection, pre-/post-lay survey, CP measurement
- Marine renewable energy – wind farm foundation inspection, cable route survey, scour and mooring monitoring
- Hydrography and geophysics – MBES bathymetry, SSS, SBP, magnetometry, seabed characterization, UXO survey
- Positioning and metrology – acoustic/inertial positioning, spool metrology, dimensional control
- Photogrammetry and 3D imaging – structure documentation, 3D modeling
- Defense and science – object location, strategic surveys, scientific expeditions, under-ice operations.
About a month ago, the company also reported that it completed a debris recovery operation in less than two weeks offshore Côte d’Ivoire, on behalf of Foxtrot International.
Using the BOURBON EVOLUTION 802 vessel, DOS removed seabed debris prior to the installation of a jackup rig, ensuring site clearance and safe conditions for the upcoming operations.
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About the Author
Bruce Beaubouef
Managing Editor
Bruce Beaubouef is Managing Editor for Offshore magazine. In that capacity, he plans and oversees content for the magazine; writes features on technologies and trends for the magazine; writes news updates for the website; creates and moderates topical webinars; and creates videos that focus on offshore oil and gas and renewable energies. Beaubouef has been in the oil and gas trade media for 25 years, starting out as Editor of Hart’s Pipeline Digest in 1998. From there, he went on to serve as Associate Editor for Pipe Line and Gas Industry for Gulf Publishing for four years before rejoining Hart Publications as Editor of PipeLine and Gas Technology in 2003. He joined Offshore magazine as Managing Editor in 2010, at that time owned by PennWell Corp. Beaubouef earned his Ph.D. at the University of Houston in 1997, and his dissertation was published in book form by Texas A&M University Press in September 2007 as The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: U.S. Energy Security and Oil Politics, 1975-2005.