MARITIME Teledyne Marine Belgian Navy trials recovering the Gavia AUV. (Copyright Teledyne Marine) Defence Procurement International - Winter 2016/17 72 MARITIME Taking The Man Out Of The Minefield The year 2016 saw significant milestones achieved in the fielding of a system of robots for mine countermeasures (MCM), which is likely to see traditional minehunter vessels in future perform more of a stand-off role. The coming months promise even more developments in terms of collaboration between different unmanned systems, but full autonomy is still some years away. By Anita Hawser he “weapon that waits”—sea are activated by a ship’s magnetic mines—are reminiscent of signature, but they are costly to acquire Tconflicts past. In World War and maintain and slow moving. II, the Germans reportedly laid “Navies don’t want to buy minehunting more than 120,000 mines and vessles any more,” remarks Dominique 30,000 minesweeping obstructors in Mallet, mine warfare business manager Northwestern Europe alone, which sunk at French company, ECA Group, which hundreds of British warships. But sea manufactures a range of robotic mine mines have been used as recently as countermeasures (MCM) solutions. the 2011 Libyan conflict and the First “They [minehunters] are not designed Gulf War, which saw hundreds of mines to go far, whereas unmanned systems laid in the waters off Kuwait and Iraq’s offer additional operational capabilities Fao peninsula. and can go far away for a long time.” During minesweeping operations in the First Gulf War, the US cruiser A SYSTEM OF ROBOTS Princeton and the helicopter carrier Navies first dipped their toes in Tripoli, were damaged by mines believed ‘robotics’ using remotely-operated to have been planted by Iraq. During the vehicles to hunt for and dispose of sea Iran-Iraq War in 1988, the vessel USS mines. But various Navies are now Samuel B. Roberts was almost sunk by a looking to make the transition from moored Soviet mine laid by the Iranian traditional minehunter vessels to the Navy in the Persian Gulf. next generation of MCM based on a In the Libyan conflict, Gaddafi forces system or robots or unmanned systems laid anti-ship mines off the port of for detecting, identifying, classifying Misrata to prevent humanitarian aid and neutralising mines. ships from reaching shore. Mines and The year 2016 saw a number of underwater IEDs are cheap to acquire significant technological milestones or build and can remain undetected in the area of unmanned MCM. In for years. Today, most Navies use an indication perhaps of the maturity minehunting vessels carrying towed of the technology in this domain, sonar arrays for detecting sea mines. French-based ECA Group delivered Classification and disposal is carried several fully robotised underwater mine out by remote-controlled or unmanned countermeasure systems to navies. ECA underwater Mine Disposal Systems such says the mines can now be detected as the Royal Navy’s SeaFox, for example. using high resolution sonar fitted to Clearance divers are also still used. unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), Traditional minehunter vessels are minimising the need for the mother made from glass-reinforced plastic ship or minehunter vessels to enter the so they don’t trigger sea mines that danger zone. DefenceDefence Procurement Procurement International International - -Winter Summer 2016/17 2013 7373 MARITIME Once the sonar has detected Mallet says the ASV can have real-time of 10 hours. The A9-M, which is already potential mines, inspection robots are data transfer to a ship 10 km to 12 km in use with the French Navy, can be used to identify and confirm, via video away so the ship can stay far away from deployed and operated from rigid images, that the object is indeed a danger. ECA’s system of robots could hull inflatable boats by two operators mine. A remotely-operated disposal also be used for civilian applications or from coastal patrol vessels. For vehicle is used to destroy the mine. The such as harbour security, dispensing the Belgian demonstration, the A9-M robots can be launched either from with the need for a dedicated ship for was deployed from a RHIB, which was a mother ship or remotely deployed mine detection. offloaded from a coastal patrol vessel. from an autonomous surface vessel ECA Group says the A9-M dived for five (ASV). Keeping the traditional vessel NAVAL DEMONSTRATIONS hours, covering an area of a square in a stand-off position relaxes the ECA demonstrated its technology kilometre, with 200% coverage of the design constraints of the ship, says for the Belgium Navy’s Unmanned surveyed area, enabling detection and ECA, making the robotic platform MCM Trials in the North Sea in mid- classification of more than 100 potential less expensive than conventional September. The trial evaluated the Mine Like Objects on the seabed. minehunters, while offering a faster operation of unmanned MCM systems Further trials of unmanned MCM means of reaching the operation zone against legacy equipment currently systems are planned by the Belgian and more flexible mission configurations used by the Belgian Navy. The Navy in spring 2017. The UK’s Royal to perform other tasks such as maritime Belgian Navy’s legacy MCM system is Navy is also trialling unmanned MCM surveillance. comprised of six Flower-class Tripartite systems. During Unmanned Warrior “The trend is to do offboard MCM,” coastal minehunters with hull-mounted 2016, one of the largest demonstrations says Mallet of ECA Group, which has sonars and a remotely-operated vehicle of unmanned maritime and air systems developed a family of unmanned (ROV) in the minefield. ever staged for the Royal Navy off the vehicles for a wide range of MCM For the trial in the North Sea, ECA west coast of Scotland in October, missions, including mine disposal in fielded its autonomous underwater minehunter ships tested robotic shallow waters using its Inspector MK2 vessel (AUV), the A9-M, a 70 kg submersibles with advanced sonar for ASV fitted with a front and rear sonar. underwater vehicle with an endurance seeking out dummy mines. An EOD mobile unit adjusts UUV bouyancy during Open Spirit in the Baltics (US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd class Jared Walker) Defence Procurement International - Winter 2016/17 74 MARITIME NATO CMRE’s NRV Alliance vessel for underwater research (Copyright, NATO CMRE) The minehunter ships were system enhancements and effective announce Pathmaster, an unmanned pitted against unmanned surface obsolescence management) and initial MCM system, which features Thales’s minesweepers, such as Atlas Elektronik’s procurement. Through life costs are latest generation, high-resolution ARCIMIS unmanned surface vehicle. expected to be comparably more cost- synthetic aperture radar. Pathmaster The ARCIMIS carried Northrop effective than current MCM capability. can be operated from shore, a mine Grumman’s AQS-24B Synthetic “Of course the Navies want to maintain, countermeasures vessel or any other Aperture Sonar—used by the US in the future, current capabilities of naval platform and can be used for the Navy—through a simulated minefield. maritime security and force projection detection, classification and location Unmanned Warrior also saw Saab’s and unmanned system capabilities of mines. It can be tailored to the newly launched anti-IED (Improvised would be better able to adapt to and needs of individual navies, whether Explosive Device) underwater robot, SEA defeat an evolving threat,” says the emerging naval powers or already well- WASP (Waterborne Anti-IED Security MMCM programme manager. established maritime forces. Platform) operated as part of the Royal Euronaval 2016 also saw Thales André Buhart, senior sonar expert Navy´s Fleet Diving Squadron in search missions of harbours and to counter underwater IED and mine threats. Under the Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MMCM) programme, which was instituted in 2010, the UK and France are collaborating on a jointly developed prototype autonomous system for detecting and neutralising sea mines and underwater explosive devices (see box). “A fully unmanned capability would provide benefits such as increased mission tempo, through higher coverage rates with reduced time on task, an ability to keep the man out of the danger zone and, through greater system autonomy, reduced manning,” the France UK MMCM programme manager explains. An unmanned technological solution would also offer a flexible incremental Anchor seen by Synthetic Aperture Sonar on board the MUSCLE AUV acquisition approach (enabling effective (Copyright, NATO CMRE) Defence Procurement International - Winter 2016/17 75.