French Navy to acquire eight mine warfare AUVs

French maritime robotics manufacturer Exail and defence technology company Thales have been selected by the French Armed Forces' defence procurement agency to supply eight autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs).

The contract awarded to Exail and Thales also includes options for up to eight additional AUVs.

The AUVs will each be fitted with a specialised sonar and will form part of the French Navy's Future Mine Warfare System (Systeme de lutte anti-mines futur; SLAM-F) program. Developed by Thales, the sonar is optimised for the detection of all naval mine threats, down to deeper waters.

The AUVs will be extended variants of an existing Exail underwater craft. The new AUVs will boast stealth features and will be able to operate in challenging environments where they will detect and classify maritime mines.

The SLAM-F program came about due to the need to ultimately replace the French Navy's aging mine countermeasures (MCM) assets, which include crewed minehunting vessels and associated equipment such as sonars, by 2029. The use of unmanned craft will mean human crews will not be put at risk during MCM operations, even when dealing with obsolete types of mines that are still found in large numbers in the world's oceans.