Home Europe Atlas Elektronik secures Royal Navy contract for fifth ARCIMS minehunting USV

Atlas Elektronik secures Royal Navy contract for fifth ARCIMS minehunting USV

Royal Navy ARCIMS minehunting USV
AUEK file photo of an ARCIMS USV

Unmanned systems developer Atlas Elektronik UK (AEUK) revealed it has signed a contract with the UK defense ministry’s DE&S mine hunting capability (MHC) team for the delivery of another ARCIMS uncrewed minehunting system.

The fifth vessel will be named RNMB Hydra, and will complement the four existing ARCIMS systems (Hussar, Halcyon, Harrier and Hazard) being supplied to the Royal Navy for mine sweeping and minehunting tasks.

RNMB HYDRA will be fitted with sense and avoid autonomy, a launch and recovery system (LARS) and towed sidescan sonar. Command and control will be from a portable command center (PCC) and combines UXV Autonomy software with Seebyte’s planning and analysis software.

The platform will be delivered to the Royal Navy by late 2022 and deployed for operational evaluation in early 2023.

AEUK announced a contract for the fifth after the Royal Navy inducted the first boat in the series in early 2020.

ARCIMS boats are part of the Project Vahana, which is aimed at replacing several types of craft and workboats across the Royal Navy fleet. Project Vahana boats are also referred to as the sea class marine craft and are based on a modular design that standardizes maintenance and spare parts. AEUK is delivering up to 38 boats in the class under a contract from 2017.

“I am delighted in the RN’s decision to make further investments into the capability offered by ARCIMS, which have been delivered and supported under the UK Sweep and Wilton projects. The flexibility of the platform to deliver across the MCM domain once again allows us to showcase the deployment of both our own payloads and those of 3rd parties,” Wes Galliver, AEUK head of surface ship systems division said.