Kraken Robotics, Nauticus Robotics, and Infleqtion are among the companies developing autonomous underwater vehicles, advanced sonar, and quantum navigation systems purpose-built for the kind of mine countermeasures that may soon be needed in the Persian Gulf.
Reports by CNN overnight suggest that Iran has begun deploying naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s daily oil supply flows.
Iran does not need a perfect minefield to shut down the Strait and send shock waves through the global financial system. Even suspected mines can freeze commercial shipping, make insurance premiums prohibitively expensive, and force a protracted mine countermeasures campaign.
We take a look at three companies at the cutting edge of subsea robotics and quantum sensing that offer technologies that could prove decisive in any mine-clearance operation, as well as further commercial services beyond the current conflict. There is no suggestion that these companies will deploy to the Strait, rather, this is a look at the types of innovative technologies that can be used to tackle similar threats.
Nauticus Robotics (NASDAQ: KITT)
Nauticus Robotics builds fully electric, untethered autonomous underwater vehicles designed to operate without the support ships and large crews that traditional remotely operated vehicles require.
Its flagship platform, the Aquanaut MK2, can transform between two operational modes: an excursion configuration for survey and data collection, and an intervention configuration fitted with the company’s proprietary Olympic Arm electric manipulators for physical interaction with subsea objects.
In a mine countermeasures context, the vehicle could first survey the seabed using its sensor suite to locate and classify mine-like objects, then switch to intervention mode to physically neutralise or mark them. The system is controlled through acoustic communication networking and powered by Nauticus’s ToolKITT autonomy software, which provides AI-based perception, decision-making, and manipulation capabilities.
In the third quarter of 2025, Nauticus conducted its deepest-ever untethered test to 2,300 metres, believed to be the deepest by any drone in its class.
Nauticus reported Q3 2025 revenue of $2.0 million, compared with $0.4 million in the prior-year period, reflecting the ramp-up following its acquisition of SeaTrepid International earlier in the year.
The company has ambitions to enter the subsea rare-earth exploration space after securing a $250m financing facility towards the end of last year.
Kraken Robotics (CVE: PNG)
Canadian-listed Kraken Robotics is perhaps the most directly positioned of the three companies for a Strait of Hormuz mine countermeasures mission.
The CAD$3.1bn market-cap company’s core product, Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS), delivers 3cm × 3cm imaging resolution at ranges exceeding 200 metres per side. This is a substantial improvement on conventional sidescan sonar. It also performs imaging and bathymetric mapping simultaneously in a single pass.
Kraken’s KATFISH platform, a high-speed actively stabilised towed SAS system, is specifically designed for mine hunting and has been deployed with NATO navies, including the Royal Danish Navy. The system can operate at up to 10 knots, enabling rapid area coverage critical when time is of the essence in clearing shipping lanes.
The company also supplies its AquaPix SAS modules for integration into unmanned underwater vehicles, and its SeaPower pressure-tolerant lithium-ion batteries extend UUV mission endurance, with energy density roughly 200 per cent greater than that of traditional oil-compensated subsea batteries.
Kraken’s technology is embedded in platforms operated by major defence primes. Huntington Ingalls Industries integrates Kraken batteries and sonar into the REMUS family of underwater vehicles used by the U.S. Navy for mine countermeasures. Anduril Industries has integrated Kraken’s sonar and battery systems into its Ghost Shark and Dive-LD autonomous platforms, which are being manufactured at scale for the United States and allied navies.
Like all of the companies mentioned in this article, Kraken has a broad range of commercial applications beyond mine countermeasures, including deployment in the North Sea.
In Q3 2025, Kraken reported record consolidated revenue of C$31.3 million, a 60% increase year-on-year, driven by record shipments of subsea batteries and synthetic aperture sonar to defence customers.
Infleqtion (NYSE: INFQ)
While Nauticus and Kraken address the physical detection and neutralisation of mines, quantum computing Infleqtion tackles an equally critical challenge. And that’s how to navigate safely in the GPS-denied, electronically contested environment that Iran is doing its best to create around the Strait of Hormuz.
Infleqtion builds quantum sensing products, including optical atomic clocks, quantum RF receivers, and quantum inertial sensors, that provide positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) capabilities independent of satellite signals.
Its quantum inertial sensors use cold-atom technology to measure gravity, acceleration, and rotation with a precision that nearly eliminates the bias errors and drift that plague conventional inertial navigation systems. Its Tiqker atomic clock delivers timing accuracy more than 100 times greater than traditional solutions and is already in use by the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA.
In the context of a mine countermeasures operation, autonomous underwater vehicles clearing mines need precise navigation to maintain systematic search patterns, accurately geo-reference detected objects, and return to exact positions for follow-up investigation or neutralisation.
In the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran’s electronic warfare capabilities include GPS jamming and spoofing, quantum-based PNT would allow MCM platforms to maintain accuracy where conventional navigation faces difficulties.
Infleqtion also offers Exaqt, a quantum gravimeter solution that detects subtle variations in gravity for precise positioning and geophysical mapping.
The company conducted the world’s first commercial flight trials of quantum-based navigation technology in collaboration with BAE Systems and QinetiQ, demonstrating resistance to GPS jamming and spoofing.
Infleqtion was listed at $14.25 per share in February this year, following its SPAC merger with Churchill Capital Corp X, and raised $550 million in the process. The company reported trailing twelve-month revenue of approximately $29 million as of mid-2025.
