Thales vehicle pairs sonar, AI and a seabed imaging box
Autonomous and remotely monitored vessels are taking on dangerous mine-hunting work in the Strait of Hormuz as ships continue to come under attack despite assistance from the U.S. Navy. The concern extends beyond a confirmed mine: the possibility of one can stop tanker traffic, and autonomous systems are being used to search while limiting human exposure.
The Strait remains one of the most dangerous trips a vessel can take, and BBC News reported that ships were still being attacked despite U.S. Navy assistance. A South Korean vessel is among the ships damaged in the Strait of Hormuz. Steve Cameron, a former merchant navy officer and maritime consultant, said: “To transit the Strait of Hormuz you need agreement between the captain and the crew to take the risk. You need war risk insurance. And the captain has to make the final decision.” Cameron added: “If you’re a captain, you’d like to see evidence mines aren’t present.”
Missiles and drones threaten vessels from the air, while mines may lurk below the surface. Modern seabed mines can rest on the bottom and detonate after detecting an acoustic or magnetic signal, with the resulting pressure wave capable of breaking a passing vessel’s keel. Other mines can rise through shallow water, float or move toward a target. The technology is not difficult or costly, but the mere threat can stop a tanker fleet from sailing. Ian McFarlane, a naval architect with French defense group Thales, said: “Mines are a very cheap way of waging a naval war, as the Royal Navy is acutely aware.”
Finding sea mines traditionally fell to specialist mine-hunting vessels with crews of around 80 sailors. Increasingly, autonomous systems monitored from shore are taking over that work and might require only 20 personnel working in shifts on land. With recruitment and retention challenges facing NATO navies, highly portable robotic systems are attractive. The technology has been under development for 20 years.
During the 2003 Iraq war, the U.S. Navy searched the seabed with a torpedo-shaped robot called the Remus 100. The machines used sonar to operate down to around 100 feet and spared divers a difficult and dangerous task. The latest conflict in the Gulf is now testing more capable systems.
The U.S. military has released few details about its mine-hunting craft, but there have been glimpses of them. Iranian forces hauled an uncrewed U.S. autonomous submersible from the waters of the Strait of Hormuz in early September, and Iran’s military published a picture of the captured craft. The Pentagon claimed the robot, an Extra Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle from U.S. autonomous defense technology venture Anduril, was a malfunctioning older device with no classified equipment on board. Whatever its mission, no sailors were imperilled. William Lupton, a naval analyst with Shephard Group, said the outcome “was a drop in the ocean compared to having prisoners taken,” describing it as part of the point of uncrewed vessels.
The episode also raises a separate problem for navies: what happens when an uncrewed craft is seized. NATO navies have been reluctant to describe the protections in detail, but computer drives can be wiped or destroyed remotely by various means. That may have taken place inside the circuit boards of the XLUUV captured by Iran.
Autonomous technology is being embraced by forces around the world. Cooperation among Thales, the Royal Navy and France’s Marine Nationale produced a robot motor launch known as the Thales Uncrewed Surface Vehicle. The USV is packed with sensors programmed to detect mines using sonar developed for the oil and gas industries.
The Thales vehicle tows a 5-meter-long rectangular box resembling a large torpedo. The device takes a high-resolution look at the seabed and creates a three-dimensional picture refined by AI. The software is designed to spot anything that looks like a mine, including the latest mines built to blend into their surroundings.
Autonomous systems also cost less than conventional minehunters and can be deployed with containerized control centers by air. Steve Prest, an associate fellow at the RUSI defense think tank, introduced uncrewed mine hunting into the Royal Navy and was its first fleet robotics officer, a title he acquired in 2014. Prest said: “There is a bunch of ways to look for a mine using robot boats or robot subs, and while you can’t prove the negative, that no mines are there, you can reduce the risk.” He said U.S. robot minehunters can either destroy a mine or mark the spot as one to avoid.
Prest expects unmanned systems to take on more missions as their capabilities expand. He said: “We’ll see more use of autonomy but also the missions and capability will expand. And AI will be analysing data from those vessels on the spot as opposed to data being analysed when a drone returns.” The Royal Navy recently announced a concept for a hybrid navy that mixes drones with conventional warships. Prest said the vision would require the fleet to operate as one distributed force sharing data in what he calls a cognitive architecture. An individual robot provides limited value without that larger system, he said: “Uncrewed or autonomous vessels are not the operating system. They are applications running on it.”
People remain central to decisions in the Strait. Neil Roberts, who speaks for insurers at Lloyd’s of London on marine matters, said the psychological impact of the mine threat is inescapable, as is the uncertainty about how many mines, if any, are present. Roberts relayed the U.S. position: “The US says it has cleared the Omani route and believes the mine threat is being managed, with shipments running at about 75% of pre-conflict levels.” Fear of the unknown is the most potent aspect of the sea-mine threat, and robots are now used to confront that fear.
Taken together, the systems can map the seabed, flag suspected mines, avoid putting divers in the water and shorten the delay before data are analyzed. They do not prove that a route contains no mines, and Prest said no single robot provides the capability on its own. In the Strait of Hormuz, the final assessment still belongs to the people deciding whether a captain and crew can safely make the transit.