The ECA Group of France is to design an autonomous underwater vehicle and its launch and recovery system for an Anglo-French counter-mine program.
The work will be performed as a partner in the Maritime Mine Counter Measures program, or MMMC, which is managed by OCCAR, the European Union agency for joint military acquisition projects.
Others in the program for an AUV to detect and neutralize underwater mines and improvised explosives are Thales and its partner BAE Systems.
ECA said its design of the autonomous underwater vehicle should be completed this year or in 2016. The manufacture and delivery for testing of the vehicle would then occur in later, and optional, stages of the project.
Patents related to an AUV launch and recovery system have already been filed with the authorities, the company said.
ECA specializes in mine countermeasure AUVs. Among its products are the A9-M, A18-M and A27-M vehicles, which carrying various mine-detecting sensors. It plans for the MMMC vehicle to be derived from the A27-M.
