Co-creation defines the future
The specs that defined your ROV cable two years ago may not be the ones keeping your operations running today. Here’s a quick run-through of our ROV Trend Report 2026, which you can download at the bottom of this blog.
Depths are increasing. Power requirements are shifting. And since the Baltic Sea incidents, subsea infrastructure has become a strategic asset that needs to be protected. We've mapped four trends reshaping ROV operations, and what they mean for the cable connecting your system to the surface.
1. Subsea infrastructure under threat
This one wasn't on anyone's trend list five years ago. Cable damage, suspected interference, and increased naval activity in the Baltic Sea have turned subsea security from a theoretical risk into an operational reality. ROV operators are now fielding requests for rapid deployment inspection, cable route verification, and damage assessment, often at short notice in unpredictable conditions.
For cables, this shifts priorities. Reliability no longer just means uptime and fatigue resistance. It means immediate availability, robust handling performance, and the confidence that your cable won't fail during a mission-critical window. The tolerance for downtime has dropped. Significantly.
2. The electric ROV transition
Work-class ROVs have run on hydraulics for decades. That's changing. Sustainability targets, deeper operations, and the inconvenient truth that hydraulics leak are pushing OEMs toward fully electric systems. The benefits are real: better accuracy, lower fuel consumption, reduced maintenance, and fewer failure points.
But let's be precise. Work-class ROVs still account for roughly 74% of the market by value, and most active fleets remain hydraulic. The electric era hasn't fully arrived. It's arriving. For cables, the shift from AC-powered hydraulics to DC-powered electric systems changes everything. Conductor sizing, insulation thickness, voltage stress management, heat dissipation, all need rethinking. Larger eWROVs operating at greater depths generate more heat, while the cable diameter needs to shrink. Those competing requirements make cable design for electric ROVs considerably more complex. And the moment to involve a cable engineer is before the system design is locked. Not after.
3. Automation on water: USVs and AUVs
Offshore missions are going uncrewed. The push for lower emissions, reduced costs, and fewer people in harm's way is accelerating the adoption of Uncrewed Surface Vehicles and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. What started in defense (mine hunting, submarine detection, threat identification) is expanding into commercial and research applications. Pipeline inspections. Offshore wind maintenance. Hydrographic surveys.
In the most advanced setups, surface vehicles, ROVs, and AUVs operate as a single system. A vehicle completes its inspection, docks underwater to recharge and offload data, and deploys again. All without human hands in the loop.
When the launch platform shrinks from a crewed support ship to a compact USV, every component has to follow. Cables included. Yet the performance brief doesn't shrink with it. Power delivery, data throughput, tethering strength, and absolute reliability all remain non-negotiable. Remove the crew, and you remove the safety net. The cable either works, or the mission doesn't.
4. Going deeper
Across energy, research, and deep-sea mining, ROVs are being pushed to greater depths. Offshore wind farms move further from shore. Mining concepts target 4,000 to 6,000 metre operations. Research institutions are reaching previously inaccessible zones.
Depth changes everything. Longer cables increase suspended weight, tensile load, dynamic loading during launch and recovery, and handling complexity on deck. Beyond approximately 4,000 metres, traditional steel armouring becomes inefficient due to self-weight. Synthetic strength members like aramids offer a lighter alternative — but they introduce new challenges: lower compressive strength, different fatigue behaviour, and no inherent heat conduction.
Deep-water capability isn't defined by a material choice alone. It's defined by system-level integration: cable, termination, handling equipment, and ROV weight, engineered together. The real question isn't "Can the cable reach that depth?" It's: "Can the cable survive repeated deployment at that depth?"
Where trends meet industries
What one industry solves, another applies
These four developments don't stay in their lane. In energy, the convergence of oil & gas and renewables means ROV operators need cables that work across the full spectrum — from decommissioning ageing platforms to installing floating wind farms. In defense, autonomous systems and subsea security are driving demand for specialised cable designs. In deep-sea mining and research, the requirements overlap: lightweight yet strong, reliable at extreme depths, with heat dissipation and crush resistance as critical design factors.
And the innovations transfer. Materials developed for mining improve performance in offshore wind. Solutions built for defense inform commercial development. As one industry pushes boundaries, others benefit.
Looking ahead
Some developments aren't fully visible yet. Superconductors with zero electrical resistance could one day transport energy without loss. More immediately, smarter cables are in development: embedded monitoring systems that measure temperature, strain, and acoustic signals in real time. Cables that tell you what's happening along their entire length, not just at the endpoints. That's not theoretical. It's engineering in progress.
Co-creation starts before the spec sheet
The best cable solutions don't come from a catalogue. They come from sitting down with your team at the earliest project stage and engineering the answer together. That's what co-creation means at DeRegt. Your challenge is our project.
Trend Report 2026
