On Friday, April 24, 2026, Germany’s Rheinmetall AG announced that, during SeaSEC 2026 in Rostock, an autonomous test stand for the AMC12 surface vehicle had been presented and demonstrated under real-world conditions as part of a strategic technology partnership with IBM, Anschütz, and besecke.
Photo: Rheinmetall AG
Rheinmetall Naval Systems has entered into a strategic technology partnership with the American company IBM and the German companies Anschütz GmbH (formerly known as Anschütz Raytheon) and besecke GmbH & Co. KG to jointly develop autonomous surface vessels. The aim of this industrial partnership is to further improve decision-making processes in complex maritime environments.
“We are witnessing a dynamic in current conflicts that is increasingly influenced by autonomous and highly automated systems. Added to this are security risks to maritime infrastructure in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. We must find effective responses to these new threat situations. The most viable solution is an autonomous system-of-systems, in which we network manned motherships with partly unmanned, autonomous underwater, surface, and aerial vehicles. This ensures rapid and flexible response capability, reduced risk to crews, and high operational efficiency,” said Tim Wagner, CEO of Rheinmetall’s Naval Systems division.
The AI-supported system has enhanced autonomous capabilities for participating in maritime traffic, improving decision-making and safety in navigation, and conducting reconnaissance, surveillance, and seaward defense. The first technology demonstrator – the 12-meter AMC12 (Autonomous Modular Craft) combat craft – was successfully tested for the first time during this year’s SeaSEC trade fair in Rostock, held from April 13 to 24, and demonstrated several capabilities, including a new autonomous mode.
“At SeaSEC, we successfully tested the AMC12 under real-world conditions for the first time as part of a cooperation. This capability carrier is the result of joint, intensive research and development work based on needs-driven analyses and qualified situational assessments of current and future threat scenarios. Our goal is to equip our armed forces with the equipment they need to carry out their national and collective defense tasks in the best possible way,” Wagner continued.
The presentation of the AMC12 during SeaSEC took place as part of the Challenge demonstration, whose aim was to test reconnaissance capabilities for the protection of critical infrastructure such as pipelines and offshore wind farms. SeaSEC participants included Anschütz and IBM, as well as numerous other recognized companies specializing in the design and production of underwater sensors.
The AMC12 platform, which had already successfully completed initial sea trials in the harbor basin of Rheinmetall’s Blohm+Voss shipyard facility in Hamburg, was designed as a modular system. Thanks to interchangeable mission modules, it enables the flexible integration of various technologies—from navigation systems and sensors, through communications solutions, to artificial intelligence applications. The demonstrator combines IBM’s expertise in artificial intelligence, Software Defined Defense (SDD), and cloud technologies with Anschütz’s forward-looking automated navigation and operations systems, which are also certified for participation in maritime traffic. Ship automation is provided by besecke. The underwater sensors used during SeaSEC were supplied by MacArtney Germany GmbH. Overall system integration and production of the platform itself are the responsibility of Rheinmetall’s Naval Systems division, a national leader in surface vessels and a pioneer in the development of autonomous surface systems.
“Our cooperation with Rheinmetall and Anschütz brings together key technologies to reshape the future of decision-making and AI-supported reconnaissance in maritime defense. By using Software Defined Defense technology on modern cloud infrastructure, we can develop advanced surface vehicles capable of conducting complex maritime operations with the highest levels of efficiency and security,” explained Sandra Pfetzing-Huber, Executive Partner at IBM Germany. “We are pleased to contribute our expertise and technologies to a project that holds enormous potential for maritime security strategy.”
IBM brings its expertise in artificial intelligence and quantum-safe encryption to the project. These technologies provide advanced decision-support capabilities and robust security mechanisms. In addition, IBM’s container platform enables the rapid development and deployment of new software packages, allowing the system to respond to the latest challenges at any time.
Andreas Weidner, Managing Director at Anschütz, said:
“Anschütz is a pioneer in integrated, software-defined navigation solutions for naval vessels in Germany. Based on our proven and certified technology, we have developed Anschütz Autonomics, a navigation and mission system for autonomous and unmanned surface vessels. Together with our partners, we are thus creating a real game changer for unmanned maritime operations.”
Anschütz supplies the AMC12 platform with an integrated navigation system for control in both fully autonomous and remotely supervised modes during military operations. Anschütz Autonomics provides precise autonomous navigation and platform control, while also enabling safe remote supervision and control from an independent tactical operations center, such as a shore-based station, mothership, or containerized solution. The system’s capabilities also include an automated collision-avoidance system in accordance with the 1972 Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG 1972), with dynamic course and speed control; the creation of a comprehensive maritime situational picture using navigation, optical, and tactical sensors; and advanced tactical target management with automatic detection and classification.
“The project allows us to present our proven cooperation with Anschütz in linking underwater sensors with an integrated navigation and situational-awareness solution, now in an application on an autonomous platform. On the AMC platform, we provide the front end of the process chain, from detection and classification to the identification of unknown and potentially critical underwater objects. In doing so, we deliver highly accurate georeferenced data that is essential for creating an underwater situational picture,” said Torsten Turla, Managing Director of MacArtney Germany.
MacArtney Germany supplied a high-resolution side-scan sonar (Fächerlot) from the Danish manufacturer Teledyne Reson, together with georeferencing.
#SeaSEC 2026: Erfolgreicher Einsatz des autonomen #Systemverbunds optimiert #Entscheidungsfindung im maritimen Kontext https://t.co/SBm9WNuxEJ pic.twitter.com/s8NSePxc34
— Rheinmetall (@RheinmetallAG) April 24, 2026
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