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.
The unmanned surface vessel of the SLAMF/MMCM program carried out a demonstration of its capabilities in Brest harbor in June 2019. Testing with teams from the French Navy, French Armament General Directorate (DGA) and Thales is ongoing while qualification for the whole system (USV + payload) is set for December this year.
Dutch State Secretary Barbara Visser, Belgian defense minister Didier Reynders and French companies Naval Group and ECA Robotics signed the contract for 12 next generation MCM vessels and their equipment in Brussels, on July 5, 2019.
According to local media, the Russian Navy started to experiment the use of UUVs and USVs from its Project 22350 Admiral Gorshkov-class frigate. UAVs are set to be tested from Russia’s latest generation of frigates as well.
At MAST Asia 2019, the defense exhibition and conference held last month near Tokyo, Japan, local company Mitsui E&S was showcasing for the first time the new expendable mine disposal (EMD) vehicle of the JMSDF.
RE2 Robotics, a US developer of human-like robotic manipulator arms, announced yesterday that they have received $3 million in funding from the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR) to develop a dexterous, underwater robotic hand with tactile feedback.
At LIMA 2019, the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace exhibition, ECA Group was showcasing its UMIS unmanned systems suite. The French company also introduced the latest addition to the UMIS suite during LIMA: UMIS Containerized, an air-transportable drones system for MCM missions.
