Water Linked was pleased to exhibit at Combined Naval Event 2026, held from 19–21 May at Farnborough International Exhibition Centre, UK. As Europe’s largest annual naval event, CNE 2026 brought together more than 2,200 senior naval leaders, government officials, industry representatives, and international partners from over 85 nations, with a strong focus on maritime collaboration, operational readiness, undersea warfare, maritime domain awareness, and future naval capability.
For Water Linked, the event was an important opportunity to connect with the naval and maritime technology community, meet existing and potential system integration partners, and discuss how compact underwater positioning, navigation, and perception technologies can support the next generation of autonomous maritime systems.
Strong interest from system integrators and defense contractors
Throughout the event, the Water Linked stand welcomed visitors from across the maritime and defense ecosystem. This included system integrators we already work with, as well as new integrators we see strong potential to collaborate with in the future.
Many of the visitors were contractors operating across both commercial and defense markets, while several discussions were also held with companies focused exclusively on defense applications. The conversations were primarily with sales and engineering teams, reflecting a strong technical and application-driven interest in how Water Linked technology can be integrated into current and future platforms.
A smaller but valuable part of the week also focused on potential technology integrations, where Water Linked solutions could be combined with partner technologies to develop sensors or systems tailored to specific customer needs.
Autonomy at the center of the conversation
One of the clearest takeaways from CNE 2026 was: it is all about autonomy.
Across the event, there was strong interest in how underwater vehicles can operate with greater independence, reliability, and situational awareness. This is particularly relevant as new AUVs and USVs are being developed to support defense and security needs, where compact, reliable, and easily integrated sensor technologies are becoming increasingly important.
The official CNE agenda also reflected this direction, with conference themes covering the full spectrum of naval operations, including maritime domain awareness, undersea warfare, fleet readiness, and evolving multi-domain challenges.
Low-profile DVLs attract attention for new AUV and USV platforms
Water Linked’s new low-profile DVLs generated particularly strong interest at the event. Many discussions focused on how compact DVL technology can support the newer generation of AUVs and USVs being developed for defense applications.
The need is clear: autonomous platforms require reliable navigation data, but payload space, weight, integration complexity, and hydrodynamic profile all matter. Water Linked DVLs are designed with this challenge in mind, offering high-specification performance in a very compact form factor. Water Linked describes its DVL technology as developed to make high-specification DVL performance accessible and simple to use, enabled by proprietary transducer design, advanced algorithms, and compact mechanical design.
This combination makes low-profile DVLs highly relevant for vehicle developers who need robust navigation capability without compromising platform design.
Sonar 3D-15: real-time 3D perception for challenging environments
The Sonar 3D-15 also received significant interest from visitors. As underwater autonomy advances, the ability to understand and map the surrounding environment in real time becomes increasingly important.
Water Linked’s Sonar 3D-15 is an advanced 3D multibeam imaging sonar designed to enhance spatial awareness even in zero-visibility conditions. Its real-time 3D data can support navigation, obstacle awareness, and decision-making in challenging underwater environments.
At CNE 2026, visitors were especially interested in how 3D sonar data can be used to build a real-time 3D understanding of the environment, supporting safer and more capable autonomous operations.
While the Sonar 3D-15 attracted strong attention, the DVL discussions were even more frequent overall. This reflects the broad need for DVLs across many vehicle types and applications, where accurate navigation data is often a baseline requirement, while advanced sonar capability is more application-specific.
A positive signal for advanced maritime technology
Combined Naval Event 2026 was a well-run event and provided strong support in helping exhibitors connect with relevant contacts across target companies. For Water Linked, it also confirmed a positive market signal: there is significant demand for advanced underwater technology, and many organizations are working to bring new solutions to market quickly.
The conversations at CNE reinforced the importance of compact, reliable, and integration-friendly technology for the future of naval and maritime autonomy. From DVLs for next-generation autonomous vehicles to 3D sonar for real-time perception, Water Linked technologies are well positioned to support the evolving needs of the defense and commercial maritime markets.
Looking ahead
We would like to thank everyone who visited the Water Linked stand at CNE 2026. The discussions, feedback, and new connections made during the event were highly valuable, and we look forward to continuing conversations with system integrators, contractors, technology partners, and vehicle developers.
As autonomy continues to shape the future of maritime operations, Water Linked remains focused on delivering compact, high-performance underwater technology that helps vehicles navigate, perceive, and operate more effectively below the surface.