The U.K. government has announced the delivery of the first Ariadne mine countermeasures, an unmanned surface vessel of the Royal Navy produced by Thales U.K.
Ariadne USVs are being produced under a contract worth £184 million for mine hunting operations in homeland waters and overseas.
Measuring 12 m in length, these USVs can likely be deployed by the upcoming Type 26 frigates.
The equipment consists of a TSAM-towed sonar to detect mines and other underwater threats.
Ariadne USV is a product of the MMCM programme jointly initiated by the U.K. and France.
France is among the countries with significant investments in USVs to counter underwater threats. In addition to MMCM, the French Naval Group is building mine countermeasure vessels carrying USVs for the Netherlands and Belgium.
Turkiye and the U.S. are the other countries working in this field. Turkiye’s various USVs are being developed in mine countermeasures configuration, while the U.S. intends to field mine-hunting USVs on its Independence-class LCS.
