Abstract Three of the largest oceanic basins on Earth, which are critical for sustaining life, surround Canada. Moreover, the monitoring of the oceans’ physical and biological states can help better understand climate change and the status of marine species. Yet no technology can provide a near real-time and large-scale assessment of oceanic conditions in a pre-defined area. Exacerbating this situation, the House of Commons has raised concerns about our own Arctic sovereignty and security. Therefore, Canada is in a strategic position for timely developing technological innovations with broad impacts.

The first part of this talk will provide an overview of the main challenges and extreme conditions facing the exploitation of networks of maritime autonomous systems operating in the underwater and Arctic domains. Those challenges encompass power and energy, communication, sensing, and endurance, just to name a few. The second part of the talk will present some recent developments that occurred at DRDC and providing potential solutions to those challenges. The talk will conclude with several research opportunities and topics for future work. Overall, this talk will provide the audience with a high-level understanding of the fascinating aspects of this research field.