Gecko wins $71M Navy deal
Gecko Robotics landed a U.S. Navy contract with a $71 million ceiling to deploy ship‑scaling inspection robots across 18 Pacific Fleet ships over the next nine months. The program aims to speed predictive maintenance, improve fleet readiness toward an 80% target by 2027, and replace slow, manual hull and equipment inspections. (breakingdefense.com)
The award is a five‑year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) vehicle with an initial task order valued at up to $54 million and a $71 million contract ceiling, and the vehicle is available government‑wide through the GSA. (geckorobotics.com)) Gecko says this is the largest Navy robotics contract it has received to date, building on a relationship with the service that began roughly four years ago after a port engineer in Japan asked the company to evaluate ship maintenance needs. (breakingdefense.com)) Inspections data will feed Gecko’s Cantilever operating platform, which the company launched in 2023 to integrate robotic, fixed‑sensor and partner data into a single asset‑management and digital‑twin system. (geckorobotics.com)) Gecko and the Navy say the robotic suite can collect structural and material data from hulls, ballast tanks and confined spaces that the company claims lets its models identify needed repairs up to 50 times faster than manual inspection methods. (geckorobotics.com)) The company reported a specific case where a single robotic evaluation of a flight deck eliminated more than three months of potential maintenance delays, a show‑case cited by Reuters and Gecko during the contract announcement. (yahoo.com)) Pittsburgh‑based Gecko, founded in 2016, currently operates roughly 250 robots across commercial and government customers and told reporters it plans to build an additional 50–60 units this year to meet demand. (ubos.tech)) Service readiness context cited by Navy leadership notes surface ship readiness was about 68% as of April 2025, and industry reporting has estimated roughly 40% of the fleet is unavailable at any given time because of maintenance backlogs. (breakingdefense.com))
