Thales and MHI team up for autonomous mine detection
OZZ-5 autonomous underwater mine countermeasure detection vehicle. (Photo: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries)
French and Japanese companies to jointly develop a dual-frequency sonar demonstrator for mine countermeasures.
Thales and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) are collaborating to develop a dual-frequency sonar demonstrator for mine countermeasures (MCM) aboard an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV).
This followed the finalisation of a bilateral defence co-operation agreement between the French procurement agency DGA and its Japanese counterpart, the Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency.
The result for the French Navy and Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force will be an improved autonomous MCM system capable of detecting, classifying and localising all types of mines, Thales announced in a 30 March statement.
Thales will provide its SAMDIS HF synthetic aperture radar, while MHI will provide its low-frequency synthetic aperture sonar and the OZZ-5 AUV. The system will be evaluated in French and Japanese waters.
Integration of the high- and low-frequency sonars, ‘coupled with a combined automatic detection and classification function, will not only provide capability and performance enhancement into a single solution but will also mutually benefit each sonar’s processing and imaging’, Thales noted.
The French company added that the five-year project ‘is a stepping-stone for Franco-Japanese cooperation in mine action and further consolidates the existing partnership between MHI and Thales’.
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