On December 12, 2019, Japan Marine United (JMU) held a launching ceremony for the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) newest minesweeper Etajima (MSO-306) at its shipyard in Yokohama.
According to a local newspaper, the Bulgarian government green-lighted the acquisition of two Tripartite-class mine countermeasure vessels (MCM) from the Royal Netherlands Navy for around EUR2.4 million.
The U.S. Navy is taking offensive mining more seriously under the National Defense Strategy and is working to bring new technologies and tactics to the fleet to modernize mine warfare for a high-end fight.
At MADEX 2019 in Busan (South Korea), a new Mine Countermeasures Helicopter (MCH) variant is being pitched by Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) to answer the ROK Navy requirement for a new airborne countermeasures capability.
At PACIFIC 2019, the international maritime exposition held in Sydney, Australia, ECA Group from France is highlighting its modern Mine Warfare solution as well as its deperming technology proposed for the SEA 1350 program.
Raytheon demonstrated an integrated capability using two future unmanned technologies during the 2019 Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX).
USNS Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams (T-ESB 4) recently completed a three-day underway in the Chesapeake Bay to integrate a Littoral Combat Ship Mine Countermeasure (MCM) Mission Package on the Expeditionary Sea Base platform.
ATLAS ELEKTRONIK UK (AEUK) has won a new export contract award for its autonomous advanced ARCIMS unmanned surface vehicle (USV). The contract was awarded by an existing ARCIMS customer, who will now benefit from an additional 2 systems with updated autonomy controller and advanced mine countermeasures (MCM) payloads.
The Latvian Navy procured a pair of A9-M Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles (AUV) from ECA Group in 2015. Since then, the system is being operated in Liepāja by the Minehunters Squadron. But It was never demonstrated to a foreign media… That was until Naval News interviewed commander Armands Grebežs, chief of the BALTRON squadron, in late August 2019.
At DSEI 2019, Thales is launching the Mine Intelligence Mapping system (Mi-Map), a new AI-assisted solution developed for mine warfare analysis. The Mi-Map console is designed to offer the customer the best solution in term of mine detection and classification, Thales said to Naval News.
