The ECA Group A9-M AUV is the military configuration of the A-9 man portable Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. Its missions include detection and classification during mine warfare operations.
The A9-M has been designed to meet STANAG 1364 requirement: its acoustic and magnetic signatures are minimized in order not to trigger any underwater mines when doing the mine warfare survey. It is deployed in less than 10 minutes, as Naval News was able to see during the demonstration which took place in the Baltic Sea off the Latvian coast.
With a weight of only 70 kg, the A9-M may be deployed and operated from a RHIB by two operators, or directly from larger vessels. Thanks to an endurance of up to 20 hours, the AUV can operate in strong currents and high tide environments without degradation of its side scan sonar image quality.
According to ECA, the A9-M can be used as a standalone system with its own mission management software. It can also be integrated in a more comprehensive robotic system able to fulfill th full spectrume of Mine Counter Measures operations. This MCM robotic package, fully developed by ECA Group, combines:
- A9-M AUV for high performance Mine detection and classification,
- SEASCAN MK2 ROV for Mine Identification,
- K-STER C for Mine neutralization,
- UMIS (Unmanned Mine Counter Measure Information System): a Mission management system dedicated to MCM.
