The U.K., France Partner on Anti-Mine Robots

In an era of asymmetric conflict, naval mines pose an enduring threat to military and civilian ships. Fifteen out of 19 U.S. ships sunk or seriously damaged since World War II were affected by mines. Robotic minesweepers offer to minimize the risk to sailors and vessels. Under a landmark agreement, the British and French navies are cooperating on remotely operated anti-mine vehicles.

The Organization for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) awarded a contract on March 27, 2015, on behalf of the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence and France’s Direction Generale de ‘Armament. OCCAR is an intergovernmental organization to manage European joint armament programs.

“By working together and drawing on a common vision for unmanned underwater systems, we will be able to explore the military, technological, financial, and skills benefits that developing this maritime capability could bring,” said U.K. Defence Minister Philip Dunne in a statement.

The Maritime Mine Counter Measures program involves multiple vehicles.

The Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MMCM) project was awarded to France-based Thales Group and U.K.-based BAE Systems, in addition to other contractors. The joint team is working on a fleet of vessels to find and neutralize mines. This is different than standalone, one-shot systems such as Atlas North America’s SeaFox.

The MMCM contract began with a design phase in 2012, and the next phase is to build and test robots serving the U.K.’s Mine Countermeasures and Hydrography Capability (MHC) and France’s Future Mine Action System (SLAM-F). The coordination between the Royal Navy and the French Navy requires systems to be interoperable.

Tests of a small fleet of surface and subsurface vehicles are intended to run over an 18-month period, said the Ministry of Defence. Two prototypes are due in 2019. Funding levels were not specified.

Deploying a drone division

According to Thales, an unmanned surface vessel (USV) from ASV Ltd. will tow a Synthetic Aperture Sonar Array to find mines. The USV will also include an autonomous navigation system, an obstacle detection and avoidance sonar, and a threat identification and neutralization capability based on remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) from SAAB.

MMCM will need high-resolution multiview imaging sonars and analysis tools to classify threats. Autonomous underwater vehicles from France-based ECA Group would use sonar to identify mines and could attach charges to detonate them.

The MMCM would also report to crewed ships, as well as satellites and land-based command centers using Wood & Douglas communications. For command and control, Thales and BAE Systems will provide the Portable Operations Centre, and BAE will work on the Mission Management System.

Thales has “equipped more than half of the world’s in-service fleet of mine hunters,” and the program “will provide France and the United Kingdom with key capabilities to support maritime security and the projection of amphibious forces,” said Patrice Caine, chairman and CEO of Thales.

Lethal Drone Debate Moves to the U.N.

An aside to recently stoked popular fears of artificial intelligence is a serious debate over the ethics of automated weapons systems, even as armed forces worldwide invest more in robotics research.

A report from Harvard Law School and Human Rights Watch argues that an international treaty should ban fully autonomous weapons. Mind the Gap: The Lack of Accountability for Killer Robots expresses concerns about legal responsibility for lethal drones, although much of the drive toward drones has been in the hope of reducing human casualties, at least on the part of nations using them.

Another worry is that the consumerization of drone technology will ease the proliferation of remote and unmanned weapons systems, especially among nonstate terrorists. The report was released in advance of a U.N. meeting in Geneva to discuss the regulation of emerging military technologies.

As long as multiple parties remain interested in automated combat systems, it’s unlikely that an enforceable agreement will be reached to limit their use.

Perilous seas ahead

Navies worldwide are actively pursuing robotics development for both defensive and offensive purposes. For example, the U.S. is also conducting research involving groups of automated vehicles and “drone motherships” for naval mine removal, some of which have replaced dolphin mine hunters.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is quietly working on a “ghost ship,” or autonomous sub hunter. Leidos’ Anti-submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel, or ACTUV, is expected to be deployed later this year.

DARPA is also working on a submersible drone carrier. In addition, Japan and the U.S. have teamed up to work on robotic submarines to patrol the increasingly contested South China Sea.

As with landmines, student researchers are also investigating robotic mine removal. On the other side of the issue, the U.S., China, and other nations are working on mine-laying technologies.