Platform · Codename Eidolon
Eidolon is Autarch Systems' heavy-class unmanned underwater vehicle platform. The design philosophy is straightforward: take the manufacturing rigor of commercial construction, apply it to a serious unmanned subsea vehicle, and let the producibility math close the gap to the customer.
Eidolon targets the gap between man-portable UUVs and program-of-record XL-class vehicles. It is engineered to deliver the endurance, payload mass, and operational range that small UUVs cannot reach — without inheriting the cost basis or fielding timeline of the XL programs.
The platform is sized for forward-deployable operations: container-packable at baseline, transportable by standard maritime and air logistics, and maintainable by uniformed and contractor personnel with conventional tooling. Mission profiles include long-duration sensor delivery, persistent surveillance, mine countermeasures support, payload-vendor hosting, and attritable-tier operational concepts.
The cost wall in the heavy UUV category is set by hull material and integration complexity, not by physics. Eidolon trades a small fraction of theoretical performance for a step change in producibility: standardized commercial pressure-hull construction, mature welding and inspection regimes, modular internal architecture, and a hybrid energy stack that uses commodity components. The result is a serious platform that survives a defensible BOM review.
Design decisions
The decisions below are the ones we are willing to commit to in public — they are architecturally load-bearing and difficult to walk back. Numerical performance, BOM, and unit-cost analysis are shared under NDA after a qualifying conversation.
The primary pressure vessel is fabricated from commercially available, standards-graded materials with mature welding and inspection processes. This is a deliberate departure from the composite-hull norm in the heavy-UUV category. Detailed structural design and margins are released under NDA.
Energy storage is lithium iron phosphate, packaged as independently swappable modules. We accept the energy-density penalty versus NMC chemistries in exchange for thermal and mechanical robustness. Modules can be removed and serviced in the field; the platform tolerates degraded-mode operation with a reduced module count.
A marine genset, integrated with a snorkel mast, supports cruise-and-charge operations concurrently. Submerged-leg endurance is set by the battery; total mission range is set by fuel. This is not a trickle-charge auxiliary — it is the primary energy source over the full mission envelope.
The baseline hull is sized so that four units stow in a standard 20' ISO container. Two additional length variants extend range and payload at the cost of off-container transport. Customers select the trade.
Eidolon hosts third-party payloads. We do not build mission payloads, and we do not bundle the platform with a single payload prime. The host vehicle, the energy stack, and the payload-bay interface are the product.
All capability claims trace to a numbered requirement (M/P/C/L/O/B/PP/MA categorization) with a backing decision log. Implementation choices are kept out of the requirements matrix; they are recorded separately with rationale, so a customer's requirement delta produces a tractable design delta.
Configurations
The container-packable configuration. Four units per standard 20' ISO container, tuned for logistics tempo and forward deployability.
Increased pressure-hull volume for energy and payload. Off-container transport. Targeted at long-transit and persistent-station missions.
The maximum-endurance variant. Sized for ocean-crossing transits and the longest payload-vendor mission envelopes.
Fuel capacity is selected per-order across four standard configurations. Specific dimensions, endurances, and payload masses are released under NDA.
Endurance, range, payload, sprint and cruise performance, BOM analysis, and producibility plan are available under NDA to qualified DoD and industry counterparts.