NATO DIANA’s Rapid Adoption Service enables first R&D contract between Allies and industry

Press Release

NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA), on behalf of Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), has awarded a research and development (R&D) contract to HonuWorx, a UK‑based technology company specialising in undersea robotics systems. This marks the first R&D contract awarded on behalf of a NATO Ally under NATO DIANA’s Rapid Adoption Service.

Developing undersea capabilities

Under the new R&D contract, HonuWorx will conduct an engineering study to extend the operating depth of its undersea systems. The work will include development of a high-fidelity simulation suite to demonstrate mission potential in challenging operational environments, reducing technical risk and supporting the initial steps toward a deployable system.

“Autonomous subsea systems are evolving from data collection platforms toward the delivery of real capability, with the potential to change how sensitive seabed operations are conducted. This work focuses on extending that capability into deeper environments while meeting specific operational requirements, and represents a further step toward operational deployment,” said Lee Wilson, CEO of HonuWorx.

“HonuWorx’s proposed system, initially envisioned to support the offshore oil industry, holds the potential to allow Canadian defence research to effectively and efficiently operate and maintain future, deepwater power and data infrastructure and support the testing of emerging deep-sea technologies,” said Brian May, Section Head for Scientific and Engineering Trials at the Atlantic Research Centre of DRDC.

DIANA’s Rapid Adoption Service

The contract follows DRDC’s decision to engage DIANA and its Rapid Adoption Service to identify a DIANA innovator capable of addressing a Canadian capability need.

The Rapid Adoption Service enables NATO Allies and NATO bodies to co‑develop, prototype, acquire and deploy innovative technologies at speed and at scale. Under the Rapid Adoption Service framework, DIANA can award R&D and prototype contracts on behalf of Allies through an “opt‑in programme,” reducing administrative barriers and accelerating adoption timelines. Successfully demonstrated prototypes can then transition through to production without further competition.

“The Rapid Adoption Service is designed to help Allies move faster from identified capability need to real-world solutions,” said Jyoti Hirani-Driver, Acting Managing Director of NATO DIANA. “This contract with Defence Research and Development Canada and HonuWorx shows how Allied nations can quickly and collaboratively leverage DIANA to turn innovation into operational capability.”

For this contract, DIANA’s legal, commercial and adoption teams worked closely with DRDC to co‑develop the contract specifications and establish the opt‑in programme under the Rapid Adoption Service, enabling DIANA to act on Canada’s behalf. HonuWorx was selected after having participated in DIANA’s highly competitive Critical Infrastructure and Logistics Challenge in 2025. During Phase 1 of the DIANA programme, the company was paired with COVE, the DIANA accelerator site in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where it worked closely with end users and technical experts to refine its solution.

DIANA’s Rapid Adoption Service directly supports NATO’s Rapid Adoption Action Plan, agreed by NATO Heads of State and Government at the 2025 Hague Summit, which aims to reduce technology adoption timelines across the Alliance to a maximum of 24 months.

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Noah Note: HonuWorx is an interesting company. They get a lot of love from the NATO crowd, and are a long-time partner to another Canadian golden child in Cellula Robotics. The two have been working together for a few years now to develop the Loggerhead concept, with the partnership finding success in trialing several autonomouc concepts, most recently deploying an ROV from an autonomous XLUUV.

Loggerhead is very similar to Guardian, slightly bigger in size. Both utilize Cellula’s Hydrogen fuel-cell system. The key difference is that Guardian is designed as a flexible, customizable platform for customers to tailor to their needs. Loggerhead, by comparison, is designed to operate as a ‘Mothership’, utilizing a Tethered Communications Buoy and dedicated ROV for Subsea Monitoring and Inspection.

It is designed to autonomous map and monitor critical undersea infrastructure, something very important for Canada in an era where there is increasing risk of targeting against critical infrastructure like subsea cables, which of course you can read all about here. It makes sense that, with the DRDC already tightly collaborating with Cellula on the Uncrewed Underwater Surveillance System, that they would also look to close partners of the company to provide specific solutions.

Maybe this gives hope to those wanting to see some movement on Herne, another Cellula collaboration with BAE. Imagine that paired with the River-class. Could fit in the Mission Bay after all!