Rheinmetall builds drone boats in Hamburg at Blohm+Voss

Robotics at sea Rheinmetall wants to build masses of drone boats

2026-03-10 Source: dpa 1 min Reading Time

The arms manufacturer Rheinmetall is planning to expand the production of unmanned boats in Hamburg, as has now been announced in Düsseldorf.

With the Kraken K3 Scout unmanned drone boat, Rheinmetall is also aiming to achieve sales success at sea. This is made possible by the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg, which recently became part of the Düsseldorf-based armaments giant ...(Source: Blohm+Voss) — With the Kraken K3 Scout unmanned drone boat, Rheinmetall is also aiming to achieve sales success at sea. This is made possible by the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg, which recently became part of the Düsseldorf-based armaments giant ...
(Source: Blohm+Voss)

Rheinmetall manager Tim Wagner - who incidentally heads up the Naval Systems division within the Group - has now announced that Rheinmetall is starting with a relatively small number of 15 drone boats to get the whole issue off the ground. However, the whole thing is then to be scaled up to a whopping 200 boats per year. In future, around 1,000 boats per year could be launched by the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg in 3-shift operation. Incidentally, the Kraken K3 Scout boat is remote-controlled, but will also be able to plow through the water autonomously in the future. The boat is intended for the protection of critical infrastructure, for example.

Around 150 Kraken K3 Scout have already been ordered

Rheinmetall is building the boat, which can be used for military and civilian purposes, in a joint venture with the British manufacturer Kraken Technology Group, according to reports. This type of boat is known in technical jargon as an Unmanned Surface Vehicle. Wagner also said that there are already orders for the boats from the navies of NATO countries. However, he did not name individual countries. According to him, the construction of 150 boats has already been contractually agreed. At the beginning of March, Rheinmetall completed the takeover of the naval company NVL, which also included the Blohm+Voss shipyard. The seller was the Bremen shipyard group Lürssen.

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