On behalf of the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) in France and
UK MOD’s Defence Equipment & Support organisation, OCCAr has
awarded the Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MMCM) contract to Thales,
in collaboration with BAE Systems and their partners in France (ECA)
and in the UK (ASV, Wood & Douglas, SAAB). Initiated in 2012 under
a cooperation agreement between France and the United Kingdom, the MMCM
programme develops a prototype autonomous system for detection and neutralisation
of sea mines and underwater improvised explosive devices (UWIEDs). |
The MMCM
contract includes three stages, starting with a first phase for design.
The next stages, which are subject to contract options, will manufacture
and experiment the future mine countermeasures capabilities of both
France (SLAM-F future mine countermeasures system) and the United Kingdom
(MHC – Mine countermeasures and Hydrography Capability). The programme
will deliver an autonomous, remotely operated mine countermeasures solution.
As part of the MMCM programme,Thales is committed to providing systems
to both the French Navy and Royal Navy for two years of evaluation testing.
Each system will comprise a USV (Unmanned Surface Vehicle) equipped
with an autonomous navigation system , an obstacle detection and avoidance
sonar, a threat identification and neutralisation capability based on
ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles), a T-SAS ( Towed Synthetic Aperture
Sonar) and AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles). The geolocated AUVs
will use the latest-generation synthetic aperture sonar SAMDIS with
multi-aspect functionality for improved classification. They will perform
their tasks autonomously with control from a host ship or shore - based
station via high - data - rate communication links).
The systems, meeting the operational requirements of both nations, incorporate
state - of - the - art technologies including very high - resolution
multiview imaging sonars and sophisticated analysis tools to provide
unparalleled levels of performance in automatic threat recognition and
classification.
The project will be delivered by an integrated team including personnel
from Thales in France and the UK as well as BAE Systems.
French and UK contractors involved in the MMCM system include ASV Ltd
for the supply of the surface vehicle, ECA for the supply of the underwater
unmanned vehicles, SAAB for the ROVs and Wood & Douglas for communications.
Thales will deliver the integrated Portable Operations Centre (POC)
solution, which will incorporate command & control by Thales and
BAE Systems. BAE Systems will provide the Mission Management System,
managing the command and information systems, as well as the ROVs, the
virtual visualization and experimentation suite.
The launch of this programme builds on the Lancaster House defence and
security cooperation treaties signed in November 2010 and follow s on
from the Franco - British summit held o n January 31 s t 2014.
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