Mine Countermeasure News

Greensea IQ reports it has completed a demonstration of a prototype Autonomous EOD Maritime Response Vehicle (AEMRV) for the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and US Navy. Leaning on the capabilities of OPENSEA Edge, the system provides the computing resources needed to power edge perception systems and advanced autonomous behaviors of EOD Workspace, allowing human-on-the-loop autonomy and untethered command and control over the ROV platform.The demo took place over several days in September in the open ocean off the coast of San Diego…

The U.S. Navy has awarded Bollinger Shipyards a contract to build four additional Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vessels (MCM USV). This brings the total number of vessels under contract up to seven, with options for up to 18 more vessels.“Bollinger is honored to be entrusted by the U.S. Navy to continue building the Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vessel program,” said Ben Bordelon, president and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards. “Our skilled workforce is second to none. We are proud to support and protect the men and women of the U.S.

When it comes to war, the old adage that the best defense is a good offense rings true. Nowhere is this more the case than naval warfare, where initiative can make the difference between victory and defeat. As an integral part of naval warfare, mine warfare – both mine countermeasures and mine laying, or “offensive” mine warfare - will continue to influence naval operations. Yet the latter of these sub disciplines - the “other” mine warfare, as Admiral James Winnefeld, Jr. calls it - has often been missing from mine warfare discussions.

Saab has signed an agreement with FMV on the life extension of two Koster-class mine countermeasures ships. The order value is SEK 350 million. The contract also includes options for FMV to order measures regarding the remaining three ships in the Koster-class. The total value of the options are SEK 270 million.The contract with FMV means that Saab will carry out life extensions of two Koster-class mine countermeasures ships. The modernization involves an exchange of systems for life extension and enhanced capabilities to ensure continued operability.

At the Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A. shipyard, a handover and acceptance protocol for the third in a series of modern mine destroyers – the ORP Mewa vessel for the Polish Navy – was signed on Wednesday.The ship was built by a consortium comprising the leader, Stocznia Remontowa Shipbuilding S.A., which is part of the Remontowa Holding S.A. capital group, the Research and Development Centre for Maritime Technology (OBR CTM) S.A. and PGZ Stocznia Wojenna.Like its predecessor ORP Albatros…

Norway's Kongsberg Maritime has secured a contract award with Polish shipbuilder Remontowa Shipbuilding SA (RSB) to supply three shipsets of Kongsberg Hugin Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) systems and related HiPAP positioning and communication systems for three newbuild warships for the Polish Navy.The total contract value exceeds €10 million, with the Kongsberg equipment planned for the next three ships in the Kormoran II Mine-Countermeasures (MCM) vessel program (#4, #5, and #6).These three ships will be delivered between 2026 and 2027.

The U.S. Navy needs more ships. And that means the Navy has to build more ships than it is decommissioning.The sea service has a stated a goal of 355 ships, and as many as 500 and more when unmanned platforms are counted. There are 298 ships in the fleet today. For surface ships, this number includes a high-low mix of highly capable large surface combatants, and smaller ships such as littoral combat ships LCS).The Navy’s smallest combatants are the 330-ton, 197-foot coastal patrol boats (PCs). Up until recently, ten of them have been serving in the Middle East with the U.S.

Lockport, La.-based Bollinger Shipyards earlier this month was awarded a U.S. Navy contract for the production of the Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vehicle Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MCM USV), engineering services and other direct costs.According to the Pentagon, the $13,725,953 fixed-price incentive (firm target), firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee, and cost-type contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $122,908,682.Work will be performed in Lockport, La. (65%); Portsmouth, Va. (22%); Atlanta, Ga.

To find the mine warfare challenge with the highest degree of difficulty, start at the bottom.Lurking unseen below the surface, naval mines pose a serious problem. They’re cheap, relatively easy to deploy and can inflict heavy damage against even the most sophisticated warships. They can be hard to detect and difficult to counter. What you can’t see can hurt you. And the most difficult mines to find and eliminate are bottom and buried mines. Navies have developed ships to hunt for mines in the water column so they can be avoided or destroyed…

The U.S. Navy uses unmanned and robotic underwater vehicles for a multitude of functions, including environmental sensing, mine hunting, and salvage. The Navy plans to evolve an unmanned systems operating concept that is platform agnostic and capable of operating in highly complex contested environments with minimal operator interaction.The most recent edition of the Navy’s Unmanned Systems (UxS) Roadmap was issued in 2018, and a new version is expected in the near future. The 2018 document states that UxS will operate in every domain…

Geophysical seismic surveys and port security may appear to have little in-common. However, it turns out that managing complex marine seismic operations, where 10km-long seismic streamers have to be deployed harmoniously alongside other offshore marine assets, isn’t that dissimilar to managing – and protecting – port facilities.It's an area that ION Geophysical, more known for seismic data acquisition technology, has recently been proving its expertise in, using its Marlin system for marine operations management.

HamiltonJet will collaborate with rigid inflatable boat manufacturer RIBCRAFT to supply 48 Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) to the U.S. Navy.RIBCRAFT USA was recently awarded a five-year contract to deliver the RIBs custom-fitted for use in explosive ordinance disposal (EOD). The 11-meter vessels will be equipped with twin HJ292 waterjets, blue Arrow control systems and JETanchor technology from HamiltonJet. The contract also requires extensive spare parts and training to be delivered by HamiltonJet.A critical component of the Expeditionary Mine Countermeasures Company…

Boat launch and recovery systems supplier Vestdavit said it will deliver motion-compensated davits to the US Navy, following orders placed by shipbuilder General Dynamics NASSCO to equip two Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) ships.The US shipbuilder’s San Diego yard will deliver ESB 6 and ESB 7, the latest in a series of ships which act as mobile sea bases to support mine countermeasure, counter-piracy, disaster-relief, crisis-response and other operations. Bergen-based Vestdavit in 2017 established Vestdavit Inc.

Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) 19, the future USS St. Louis, has completed acceptance trials in Lake Michigan and will now undergo final outfitting and fine-tuning before delivery to the US Navy early next year.Christened and launched on December 15, 2018, LCS 19 was built by Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wis. The vessel is the seventh ship in naval service named after St. Louis, Mo. and the 10th Freedom-variant LCS designed and built by the Lockheed Martin-led industry team."The LCS fleet is growing in numbers and capability…

Britain does not intend to escort every British-flagged merchant vessel through the Strait of Hormuz, a security source said on Thursday, after a Royal Navy warship had to stop three Iranian vessels from blocking the passage of a BP-operated tanker.The source said London would be resolute in defending its maritime interests in the Gulf but it does not want to escalate the situation with Iran.Exactly a week after Britain seized an Iranian tanker in Gibraltar accused of violating sanctions on Syria…

The Program Executive Officer for Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) granted Milestone C approval to the Knifefish Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Program. The decision clears the way for low-rate initial production (LRIP) of the system, PEO USC announced Aug. 23.The Navy is expected to award a LRIP contract to Knifefish prime contractor General Dynamics Mission Systems.The Knifefish system is designed for deployment from the littoral combat ship (LCS), vessels of opportunity or from shore to detect and classify buried, bottom and volume mines in high-clutter environments. Knifefish is a critical element of the LCS Mine Countermeasure Mission Package and will reduce risk to Navy personnel and equipment.The Knifefish system…

Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine have laid the keel of a new littoral combat ship to commence the vessel’s construction.The future USS Nantucket, or LCS 27, underwent a keel-laying ceremony in Wisconsin where Polly Spencer, the ship’s sponsor, had her initials welded on the vessel’s keel plate, Lockheed said.As part of a ship-building tradition dating back centuries, a shipyard worker welded the initials of Polly Spencer, USS Nantucket ship sponsor and wife of U.S. Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer, into the ship's keel plate. This plate will be affixed to the ship and travel with Nantucket throughout its commissioned life."The USS Nantucket will confront many complex challenges," said Richard V. Spencer, the U.S. Secretary of the Navy.

Underwater vehicles communicate, make decisions, and work as a teamThe NATO Center for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) in La Spezia, Italy, is combining smarts and muscle to solve a complex warfighting challenge: finding and destroying mines in the murky waters of the littoral.CMRE has developed experimental unmanned vehicles for experimentation. Now it is evolving those vehicles to communicate and cooperate with each other, and to solve problems on their own.According to CMRE’s director Dr.

The near-shore and inland workboat fleet is at the leading edge for autonomous vessel developmentWhile the advent of autonomous workboats are not exactly mainstream, you better believe that in the not-too-distant future they will be a reality on waterways in and around the U.S. Today there remain more questions than answers, particularly on the legal, logistics and insurance side of the coin. But the technology is evolving at record pace, providing many in the industry with mixed emotions. Excitement. Controversy. Curiosity. Skepticism. These are just a few of thoughts, and emotions that arise to any mention of the topic of autonomous vessels.It’s happening now.

Thomas Chance founded C & C Technologies in his home in 1992. Today C & C is a global oil field surveying and mapping company with more than 550 employees in ten offices worldwide. C & C was the first company in the world to offer autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) survey services to the oil industry and remains a world leader in the field. In April of 2015, he sold C & C Technologies to Oceaneering International. Complementing the autonomous underwater vehicle business, Mr. Chance started Autonomous Surface Vehicles, Ltd., or ASV, in 2010. ASV has 140 employees, four offices across the globe and has built more than 100 state-of-the-art unmanned boats for the defense and commercial sectors.

The construction of two new high-speed multipurpose vessels (UNPAV) for the Italian Navy has recently begun at Intermarine’s Sarzana shipyard. Rolls-Royce has won the contract to supply engines and waterjets to power and propel the two new vessels, which will be used by the Operational Incursion Group (Gruppo Operativo Incursori or G.O.I), the Special Forces of the Italian Navy, for maritime traffic control, combating human trafficking, counter terror and antipiracy operations and crisis evacuations.

BMT has launched VENARI-85, a new mine countermeasure (MCM) concept design said it be capable of clearing mines faster over a greater area and with less risk to the crew, while simultaneously providing broader utility to navies around the world. According to BMT, VENARI-85 offers a flexible platform that is capable of a spectrum of roles which is future-proofed and able to evolve as technology advances in the unmanned and offboard systems markets take shape. Combining BMT’s ship design pedigree with QinetiQ’s integration expertise…

One of the Royal Australian Navy’s largest maritime warfare exercises has begun in several locations off the New South Wales coast. Exercise OCEAN RAIDER involves 11 warships and submarines, aircraft and more than 1,500 personnel from Australia and the United States in a three week program of maritime activities. It is the first year Navy has staged OCEAN RAIDER, which along with OCEAN EXPLORER and OCEAN HORIZON are designed to train and certify the fleet in task-group-level joint sea combat. Commander of the Australian Fleet, Rear Admiral Stuart Mayer said Navy’s aim was to generate and deploy self-supported, sustainable maritime task groups by 2018 and OCEAN RAIDER was an important step toward achieving that goal.