The French Navy has taken delivery of the newest subsystem that will form part of a wider mine countermeasures system of systems it is developing and procuring together with the UK Royal Navy.
The system that was delivered as the next MMCM incremental capability step on May 16 in Brest, France, is known as Remotely Operated Vehicle – Identification (ROV-I).
The Royal Navy is expected to receive the same system in the coming weeks.
Delivered by Saab, who refers to it as the MuMNS (Multi-Shot Mine Neutralisation System), the new component delivers a mine identification and disposal system in a modular configuration.
The delivery of MuMNS follows the hand-over of the mine hunting component of the MMCM toolkit responsible for detection, classification and location of sea mines in November 2021.
The subsystems developed for the program by Thales as prime contractor and its partners include unmanned surface vehicles (USV) to transport and connect solutions and a SAMDIS sonar for single path multi view capability to identify and classify threats. The SAMDIS sonar can be carried by autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) or by towed synthetic aperture multiviews (TSAM) vehicle operated from the USV.
The USV can also carry a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to neutralize the threats. The entire system is remotely supervised by operators working from a portable operational center (POC) capable of controlling up to three systems in parallel at sea.
