The U.S. Navy has expanded its contracting capacity for Gecko Robotics’ inspection technology to $300 million, more than four times the $71 million ceiling established in March. The decision gives the Navy greater room to order robotic inspections across its fleet as it looks to shorten maintenance periods and identify structural problems before ships enter drydock.
The October 20 announcement concerns an increase to the ceiling of a five-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, not a new $300 million payment or a guarantee that the full amount will be spent. Gecko has not disclosed the value of additional orders placed under the expanded agreement. Its initial March contract covered work beginning with 18 vessels in the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Pittsburgh-based Gecko develops climbing robots, aerial inspection systems and AI software for assessing industrial infrastructure. Its Komodo system can scan through the thick non-slip coatings used on ship decks without stripping them away, generating maps of corrosion and material thickness. Engineers can then identify areas requiring repairs and plan the work before a vessel enters maintenance. Data collected by the company’s robots and sensors also feeds into its Cantilever software platform.
Gecko says its technology can identify structural issues up to 50 times faster than traditional inspection methods and potentially save as much as $8 million in repairs per ship. Those figures are company estimates rather than independently verified savings across the Navy fleet. The contract expansion nevertheless provides a concrete indication that the military is making room for wider use of robotic inspection in an established maintenance programme.
The development follows a broader commercial push for Gecko, which supplies inspection technology to energy, manufacturing and defense customers. Unlike experimental demonstrations, the Navy arrangement concerns an existing service with a defined procurement mechanism. The next measure of its commercial significance will be the value of task orders issued against the higher ceiling and the number of vessels receiving inspections.
