£32 Million For Nine Autonomous Submarines
Atlas Elektronik UK is to supply the Royal Navy autonomous mine-hunting submarines under a new contract announced this week.
The company has signed a deal worth £32million ($41.5million) with the Mine Hunting Capability (MHC) team of UK MoD’s Defence Equipment and Support organisation, to supply three MHC AUV systems. Each system comprises three underwater vehicles – Atlas’s SeaCat – fitted with Atlas UK high-resolution Vision synthetic aperture sonar sensors. The systems will use Seebyte’s Neptune software for analysis and planning. A launch-and-recovery system, developed with Lidan Marine, and suitable for operation from various Royal Navy platforms, is also included in the contract, as is three years of training and support. Delivery of equipment is due to begin in the spring of 2023.
“The threat posed by sea mines is constantly evolving and DE&S are working with industry to ensure the Royal Navy has a world-class network of capabilities to protect the UK’s maritime interests as well as improving the safety of Royal Navy personnel,” said DE&S’s CEO, Sir Simon Bollom. DE&S says that the contract will create 50 high-skill jobs in the UK and a further 23 across Europe.
“This is another exciting step as we move from conventional Mine Counter Measures to a system of integrated capabilities,” said the commander of the Royal Navy’s mine threat exploitation group, Commander Neil Griffiths. “This new capability is quicker, provides greater precision and will put the latest technology in the hands of our sailors, reinforcing their reputation as some of the best MCM practitioners in the world”.
The systems will complement others already supplied to the RN by Atlas for mine-sweeping, including the ARCIMS uncrewed surface vessels which are equipped with minesweeping payloads and towed sonars. DE&S said that the new systems will support “other autonomous assets, including the joint FR/UK Maritime Mine Counter Measures and Combined Influence Sweep systems [and will] become part of a ‘system of systems’ that will enable the Royal Navy to search, detect and neutralise mines from a remote distance while on operations worldwide.”
