European Commission Selects Naval Group Belgium to Lead E=MCM Project

Naval Group press release

Following the work carried out as part of the MIRICLE project*, which was concluded successfully at the end of 2023, 21 European partners will work together in the consortium to reach a European sovereign capacity in future mine warfare.

As the maritime mine threat is a reality for both the civil and military naval sectors, the European navies are strengthening their capacities to counter effectively these threats in broad maritime spectrum zones. In this context, the E=MCM project has been submitted to the European Commission, in the frame of a 2023 call of the European Defense Fund. Now selected, E=MCM will start in the last quarter of 2024 to continue the work initiated to the next generation of “made in Europe” countermeasure solutions, and help support the European naval community.

Based on the results achieved in the frame of the MIRICLE project, which goal was to establish the next-generation MCM platforms and toolbox technologies for enhanced MCM operations, the European Extended Mine Countermeasures (E=MCM) project aims at closing development gaps for capabilities of the new generation of toolbox (toolbox 2.0) to deliver better, faster, safer and more resilient MCM operations. It aims at designing, prototyping and demonstrating a single system-of-systems architecture with scalable unmanned autonomous toolboxes as well as intelligent platforms and decision-support tools for mine-counter measures (MCM), to address the threats of drifting, tethered and buried mines.

E=MCM’s objective is to deliver new MCM capabilities prototypes ready for industrialization in the European Union.

The consortium of E=MCM project is composed of 21 beneficiaries from 11 European nations:

• NAVAL GROUP BELGIUM
• NAVAL GROUP SA (France)
• EXAIL ROBOTICS SAS (France)
• EXAIL ROBOTICS BELGIUM (Belgium)
• THALES DMS (France)
• NEDERLANDSE ORGANISATIE VOOR TOEGEPAST NATUURWETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK (The Netherlands)
• ELWAVE SAS (France)
• OFFICE NATIONAL D’ETUDES ET DE RECHERCHES (France)
• VLAAMS INSTITUUT VOOR DE ZEE (Belgium)
• AGENŢIA DE CERCETARE PENTRU TEHNICĂ ŞI TEHNOLOGII MILITARE -MILITARY EQUIPMENT AND TECHNOLOGIES RESEARCH AGENCY (MINISTERUL APARARII NATIONALE) (Romania)
• DOTOCEAN N.V. (Belgium)
• SISTRADE SOFTWARE CONSULTING SA (Portugal)
• BELSS LTD (Latvia)
  SPACE APPLICATIONS SERVICES NV (Belgium)
• TERRA SPATIUM SA (Greece)
• SOCIEDAD ANÓNIMA DE ELECTRÓNICA SUBMARINA S.M.E (Spain)
• SAAB KOCKUMS AB (Sweden)
• NAVANTIA (Spain)
• Baltic Institute of Advanced Technology (Lithuania)
• ATLAS (Germany)
• ROYAL IHC (The Netherlands)

* Launched on December 2021, the MIRICLE (MIne RIsk CLearance for Europe) project was a 24-month collaborative endeavor carried out by a European consortium led by Naval Group Belgium and sponsored by both the European Commission and the Ministries of Defence of the participating countries.