

Deck handling equipment designed for ocean exploration, in all its various guises, has been transformed in recent years thanks to technological innovation. The advances are, admittedly, often overshadowed by the progress of more celebrated ocean technologies, often the prized assets that A-Frames, winches, and LARS are designed to deploy and retrieve, such as uncrewed vehicles.
But while increasingly sophisticated USVs, AUVs, and ROVs continue to steal the limelight, their successful development, trial, and integration into standardized ways of working hinge—quite literally—on the capacity for deck handling manufacturers to engineer solutions fit to meet shifting demands.
For Okeanus, the drivers of the market are many, with the bulk of present-day orders stemming from DoD contractors, commercial energy developers, and scientific institutions. Naturally, specific system requirements vary considerably, but many of the technologies that these clients need to “handle” often share a common ambition—to explore further and deeper waters.
The speed at which more expansive offshore exploration looks set to develop is exciting. In the last decade alone, we have seen the rapid evolution of USVs from relatively limited floating sensor suites to ruggedized platforms capable of increasingly long-range missions and, in some cases, equipped to remotely deploy and retrieve ancillary assets, such as smaller ROVs and AUVs.
Although this latest technological capacity is still in its relative infancy, the prospect of uncrewed vehicles autonomously launching and recovering additional uncrewed assets—all under the watchful eye of a shore-based command—has serious implications for the engineers charged with blueprinting the next generation of smart deck handling systems.
Whether this fully uncrewed mode of remote operations reaches its full working potential remains to be seen, but there is little question that, in the immediate future, incorporating remote controls that allow for the operation of a winch or LARS from a safe distance is preferable, even if that means while stationed on the same vessel as the handling system. Deck spaces are notoriously busy and, especially while deployed in unpredictable seas, can be hazardous environments—the need to shield an operator from such conditions is not a matter of dispute.
Therefore, with a heightened focus on conserving deck space and shifting HSE priorities, offshore operators—in both the government and commercial sectors—continue to press their various supply chains to devise innovative solutions. Over the last 24 months, Okeanus has introduced a number of new modular winch designs both for crewed and uncrewed operation, all of which prioritize safe and streamlined deck layouts.
In direct response to demand for more automated deployment systems, Okeanus, in partnership with fellow Advanced Ocean Systems, Inc. company affiliates, has developed an exciting new solution to convert our standard line of Okeanus multi-purpose winches, as well as other existing and commercially available equipment in the market, to automated systems. In other words, the conversion kit is entirely winch agnostic, giving operators the opportunity to meaningfully reduce—or even eliminate—the need for human intervention and deck personnel without the outlay of an entirely new deployment system.
By developing a robust, industrial automation platform, our system can interface with customer or vessel specific command and control system or user interfaces. The combined Advanced Ocean Systems team has already delivered a number of these solutions to its customers, and they are being used across our global oceans today.
In addition to these innovative conversion kits, Okeanus has developed and delivered fully automated winches and launch and recovery systems for over 20 years, offering both bespoke solutions to meet a customer’s specific mission requirement or a “build-to-print” standard design for various applications. These systems can be highly complex and mission specific, but Okeanus has developed tried and proven solutions for launching and recovering towed and tetherless subsea instrumentation and vehicles from a host of platforms—both crewed and uncrewed.
Okeanus 20-Ton A-Frame and 125 HP HPU for USV launch and recovery. (Image credit: Okeanus)
Okeanus also offers a growing lineup of Specialty Winches, including USV winches, active heave compensation winches, umbilical winches, underwater winches, MCM winches, and cold climate winches, as well as a broad range of spoolers and reelers, all of which that can be incorporated into a vessel of opportunity of virtually any size.
As with our range of A-Frames, launch and recovery systems (LARS), and HPUs, all proven to be robust and reliable enough to withstand the rigors of the toughest offshore deployments, the option to customize any Okeanus deck handling system comes as standard. Our capacity to respond to mission-critical product enhancements has helped us, over the years, to incorporate common requests into timely upgrades to our standard catalog of field-tested equipment.
Okeanus provided onboard launch and recovery hardware to the US Navy’s Sea Hunter USV. (Image credit: Okeanus)
We ultimately offer choice; our expert mechanical, structural, and electronic engineers can custom build to order, incorporate custom elements into one of our own proprietary base designs, or upgrade a customer’s existing COTS system to ensure that we deliver a purpose-ready system.
One other option Okeanus offers to customers across the ocean sector is the availability of turnkey rental equipment for rapid mobilization.
Our rental inventory, which includes an industry-leading range of all-electric and hydraulic multipurpose winches, heavy-duty LARS and A-Frame packages, USVs, and a growing array of marine survey essentials (sonars, echo sounders, sub-bottom profilers, magnetometers, USBLs, and sampling instrumentation), currently serves a broad range of commercial operators and public agencies across the international offshore energy, defense, and scientific markets. Whether a long-term lease or a last-minute project addition, Okeanus can provide fit-for-budget setups, whatever the mission.
This feature appeared in ON&T Magazine’s 2025 Special Edition, The Future of Ocean Technology, Vol. 5, to read more access the magazine here.
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