HII and Thales demonstrated an end-to-end autonomous mine countermeasure capability on November 3 in Pocasset, Massachusetts. HII is a U.S. military shipbuilder, while Thales develops advanced technologies.
The demonstration used Thales’ Expeditionary PathMaster, an open architecture designed to bring autonomous platforms, sensors, mission management systems and neutralization tools from multiple providers into a shared operational framework.
HII’s REMUS 620 unmanned underwater vehicle operated with Thales sonar and mission management tools, alongside systems from other providers. The workflow covered mine detection, classification and neutralization.
Thales’ rapidly deployable Expeditionary Portable Operation Center served as the mission hub. It hosted Thales’ mission management system and sonar analysis software, integrated with HII’s REMUS 620 and Odyssey mission management solution, as well as the ANGLER neutralization capability from Thales Advanced Acoustic Concepts.
During the FIND, FIX and FINISH stages, REMUS 620 and Thales’ SAMDIS 600 multi-aspect sonar searched for potential mines. Software analyzed sonar imagery and used AI-enabled automatic target recognition to classify and locate contacts. ANGLER and a remotely operated vehicle then reacquired the mine-like objects, visually identified the threat and provided a means to neutralize it.
The demonstration also included automated launch and recovery of the REMUS vehicle, equipped with the SAMDIS 600 sonar, using HII’s Sea Launcher. PathMaster’s open architecture enabled HII’s autonomous underwater systems and ANGLER to operate in a common NATO-compliant mission environment.
The companies said the demonstration expanded on their 2025 integration and field exercise of the SAMDIS 600 sonar aboard REMUS 620. The latest test added mission management, AI-assisted data analysis and mine neutralization, and highlighted their work on modular, interoperable autonomous systems.
