무인시스템 위주로 전환중인 기뢰전 전술

[위종민]

차기 기뢰전 전술은 USV나 UUV 등 다양한 무인 플랫폼을 활용한 기뢰탐지 및 제거작업을 수행하는, 무인시스템을 중심으로 한 toolbox 접근법으로 진화중이라고 합니다. 

차세대 기뢰 대응, 무인 시스템 중심의 다차원 전략으로 전환

현대 해군의 기뢰 대응(MCM) 전략이 전통적인 방식에서 벗어나, 무인 시스템을 중심으로 한 '도구 상자(toolbox)' 접근법으로 진화하고 있습니다. 이러한 변화는 무인 수상정(USV), 무인 수중정(UUV), 드론, 견인 소나, 원격 조종식 기뢰 제거 장비 등 다양한 무인 플랫폼을 통합하여 기뢰 탐지 및 제거 작업을 수행하는 것을 목표로 합니다.​

이러한 접근법은 선박과 승조원의 위험을 최소화하고, 다양한 작전 환경에 유연하게 대응할 수 있는 장점을 제공합니다. 특히, 벨기에와 네덜란드 해군이 공동 개발 중인 '시티급(City-class)' 기뢰 대응 함정은 약 80개의 무인 시스템을 탑재하여, 선박이 직접 기뢰 제거에 나서지 않고도 효과적인 작전 수행이 가능하도록 설계되었습니다.​

이러한 기술적 진보는 기뢰 대응 작전의 효율성과 안전성을 크게 향상시킬 것으로 기대되며, 향후 다양한 해군 작전에서 핵심적인 역할을 할 것으로 전망됩니다.​

출처

The Future of Mine Countermeasures is Multi-Dimensional - Armada International

The Future of Mine Countermeasures is Multi-Dimensional

By

 Dr. Alix Valenti

 -

April 22, 2025

The Belgian-Dutch rMCM programme will feature Exail's toolbox, the UMIS with the UMS Skeldar V-200 UAV. (Exail)

The toolbox approach using multiple unmanned airborne, surface and sub-surface assets working together against the mine menace.

“Winter storms are causing an increased threat from naval mines, through late February. Authorities in Ukraine have warned of the increased risk from naval mines to shipping and coastal communities,” read the Crisis24’ website, a risk management firm headquartered in Montreal, Canada, on 16 February 2023. As weather forecasts go, it is undoubtedly ominous, and it is only one in a long series of such warnings posted on multiple sites over the past year – including NATO’s media centre.

Yet the resurgence of mine warfare is not a surprise. Over the past years, a number of navies have been working with industry on developing new mine countermeasure (MCM) technologies and concepts of operations (CONOPS) to tackle these threats. Unmanned Surface Vessels (USV), Unmanned Underwater Vessels (UUV) and Remote Operating Vehicles (ROV) have become ubiquitous to this space, transforming MCM capabilities into a system of systems. But as complexity increases – various types of mines, multiple MCM systems, large quantities of data – how can technology and CONOPS keep up?

Mine Warfare Resurgent

Mine warfare is back. After a few decades spent deploying legacy MCM capabilities to clear World War I and II unexploded ordinances (UXO) off European sea floors – the Baltic Sea alone is said to contain approximately 30,000 UXO according to NATO – navies are now facing the resurgence of the mine threat. While the Ukraine war may have brought the media’s attention back to the reality of mine warfare, the threat is certainly not limited to the Black Sea.

In an article published in the August 2021 edition of the U.S. Naval Institute magazine Proceedings, Lieutenant Robert ‘OG’ Swain and Lieutenant Commander Ryan Easton (USN) noted that China has been very active on the mine warfare front over the past two decades. From a 2006 doctrinal document and a 2015 Chinese naval magazine article, all the way to a 2018 China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) mine warfare exercise, evidence speaks for itself: Southeast Asia, home to several key shipping lanes and critical choke points, could quickly become a minefield should China deem it necessary.

The resurfacing of the mine threat is both literal and figurative.

Naval mines can be broadly categorised into six different types: moored mines, drifting or floating mines, bottom mines, remotely controlled mines, submarine launched mobile mines, and rising or rocket mines. Of these, only drifting mines – typically found on or just below the surface – have been specifically targeted by international law: the 1907 Hague Convention (Hague VIII) mandates that they become harmless within one hour of being laid. Yet in the Black Sea drifting mines have already damaged several ships over the past two years.

As these trends emerge, it becomes evident that navies’ move toward CONOPS focused on forward-deployed sensors and autonomous systems which are key to keeping crew out of harm’s way in MCM operations. But this move also has its own challenges. “Over the past decade there has been a real paradigm shift in mine warfare,” Dominique Giannoni, CEO of Exail, told Armada. “We have moved from the use of one capability [at a time] to the simultaneous deployment of a system-of-systems that requires a much broader vision to manage the new operational complexity.”

This complexity is only set to increase. As the threat of drifting mines – or, as Russia tentatively argued, mines that have become detached – increases, a number of industry actors and navies are looking at also including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in the MCM toolbox. So the question is: how are navies and industry adapting to this fast emerging and evolving new old threat?

Unmanned Rules

While there is no doubt that mine warfare is re-emerging from the depths in which it had plunged post-WWII, it is also true that, today, Western navies’ capabilities are stretched. The resurgence of great power competition may have brought on an increase in defence budgets over the past few years, but it is no secret that modernising navies takes time, effort and money.

As do MCM missions. Even assuming that countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Australia or even the US do not intend to patrol the entire length of their long coastlines, they would still need a large number of MCM vessels to be able to keep key channels and choke points safe. As such, over the past decade, several nations have shifted their budgets to procuring MCM toolboxes made up of multiple unmanned systems, rather than just separate capabilities.

The France-UK Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MMCM) programme is an excellent example of such a trend. Through this project, both the Royal Navy (RN) and the Marine Nationale will get a comprehensive toolbox to carry out MCM missions that comprises L3Harris and Thales USVs, Saab’s Multi-shot Mine Neutralisation System (MuMNS) ROV, Thales towed sonar (TSAM) and UUVs (Exail for the Marine Nationale and Atlas Elektronik for the RN). The first two prototypes of the system of systems, which include USV and towed sonar, have already been delivered, and navies have been conducting operational eval‎uations since Q4 2021.

The MMCM programme reached a new milestone in September 2023 when Thales demonstrated the performance of the ROV, the final component of the toolbox. “To develop the MuMNS we started from our commercial line of Double Eagle systems and adapted them to defence requirements,” Chris Lade, defence sales manager at Saab, told Armada. This meant making the ROV more manoeuvrable but also reducing its acoustic and magnetic signatures, so it does not set off mines. Just as importantly, MuMNS has been designed with a skid that provides navies the flexibility to integrate up to three charges, which can subsequently all be detonated remotely using a coded radio signal. “From an operational perspective, this is much more efficient than having to resurface and reload every time,” Lade noted.

The MMCM is but one component of the RN’s Autonomous Mine-Hunting Capability (MHC) programme. The other strand comprises a series of demonstrators and operational eval‎uation systems that are predominantly delivered by Atlas Elektronik. These include the WILTON system, with manned and unmanned surface vessels, mine detection payloads and remote command centres that are all being operated by the RN in the Clyde area and the Gulf, SWEEP systems and SEACAT systems (three systems, each comprising three AUVs and a LARS).

Over in Belgium and the Netherlands, the rMCM programme follows a similar trend, except the two navies have opted for a full Exail toolbox – as opposed to the MMCM’s more pick and choose approach. The Unmanned MCM Integrated System (UMIS) will include 15 Inspector 125 USVs, 20 A-18M UUVs, 15 T18-M towed sonars, 14 Seascan ROVs for identification, 42 K-STER C ROVs for neutralisation and one containerised C2 system.

Talking to Armada during the Indo Pacific 2023 exhibition in Australia, the Exail team explained that the K-STER C is of particular interest because of the 180° rotating arm located inside the system. This allows the remote operator to position the ROV in a flat position, so that the ROV is less impacted by strong currents, and simply rotate the arm in order to find the target. Precision shooting is also enabled by a laser beam.

Finally, Australia is also in the process of selecting its future MCM system of systems under its project SEA1905. Two bids have made it to the final stages. The Exail bid offers the complete Exail toolbox, much like the rMCM programme but with the added military survey capability – the 6000m rated UUV and the Drix. The Saab bid is actually a consortium including Saab Australia (Saab), Leidos Australia (Leidos), SeeByte and Sonartech Atlas (Atlas Elektronik’s company in Australia). Within the consortium, Atlas Elektronik will be responsible for delivering the full MCM toolbox, including proven systems such as the SeaFox mine disposable system and the ARCIMS USV.

Managing Complexity

Developing systems that do the dull, dirty and dangerous work for MCM crew is all well and good, but this paradigm shift to a system of systems toolbox creates complexity. As the MMCM and rMCM programmes demonstrate, at least three systems are working together at any given time – USV, sonar, and UUV – requiring minute synchronisation of sensor tasks, feedback and positioning. And if navies seek to increase the number of UUVs to maximise the mission’s effect, complexity grows.

“The key operational challenge for unmanned MCM is that multiple constraints will affect the synchronisation of the missions carried out by each system,” Giannoni explained. These constraints are not only technical, such as battery, range and maintenance, but also environmental, such as sea states and currents. “As such, the overarching challenge for these new types of missions is helping operators in their decision-making,” Giannoni added.

At Exail, for instance, the company’s open architecture mission management software, UMISOFT, is responsible for supporting operators in their orchestration of UMIS. UMISOFT is subdivided into three modules: The Mission Module (MM) supports the four phases of mission planning for all the systems; the Drone Control (DC) module has been designed to support UxV operators; and the Data Management (DM) module carries out all the data analysis required to identify and classify threats.

The MM is the mission’s conductor. Through this module, operators can enter all the necessary parameters and constraints of a given mission – e.g., number of UxVs, environmental and technical constraints, search perimeter, etc – and UMIS will provide the most optimised mission scenario. “Ultimately, UMIS has been designed to deal with the complexity inherent to programming constrained operations allowing operators to take full advantage of their MCM toolbox,” Giannoni concluded.

Similarly, Thales has designed the M-Cube mission management system to facilitate the complete autonomous mine hunting mission, from tasking, planning and monitoring to eval‎uation and reporting. “The M-Cube allows this at all levels, from the individual platform and sensor all the way to task unit level and global fleet-wide view,” Chris Cunnell, product line manager, Mine Counter Measures (MCM) at Thales UK, said. M-Cube is the software behind the MMCM programme.

Both systems have been designed to be open architecture in order to continue integrating all future systems necessary for the success of navies’ MCM missions, regardless of the OEM. Additionally, testament to the renewed growing importance of these missions, industry leaders are also developing mission management modules that are easily deployable.

During DSEI 2023, Thales also showed AI the portable ruggedised workstation that weighs only 44 pounds (20 kilogrammes). “With one of these stations, plus a USV and a UUV, crew have a complete portable expeditionary mine hunting system that can be deployed anywhere with exactly the same software, training, and support than a fully integrated system,” Cunnel concluded. Similarly, Atlas Elektronik deliver MCM toolboxes that have scalable C3, able to operate single component systems up to multiple systems of systems.  The vehicle C3 integrates with higher level mission management systems (MMS) such as Seebyte’s SeeTrack, BAE’s Nautis and Atlas Elektronik’s own IMCMS.

MCM in 3D

If managing multiple USVs, UUVs and ROVs is already complex enough, industry trends and CONOPS indicate that things are about to get even more complex… in three dimensions. “In the last couple of years, the war in Ukraine has really brought home the threat of mines that are either floating or just below the sea surface,” Cunnel told Armada. “In such context, airborne mine warfare is a very interesting area to explore.”

Case in point: the Belgian-Dutch rMCM programme will also include 10 UMS Skeldar V-200 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). The Exail team told Armada at Indo Pacific 2023 that the system was fitted with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) in order to facilitate the detection of mines on and just under the surface. The technology is currently being validated.

“UAVs are quickly becoming another key asset in MCM because their added value is twofold,” Giannoni explained. First, they can be used as relays for extending the ranges at which data can be transferred between UUVs/USVs and mothership/shore. Second, the use of additional sensors such as LiDAR and Electro Optic/InfraRed (EO/IR) provides navies with a forward-looking sensor that can help determine if there are other ships and/or floating mines in the area.

Thales is also running a number of trials in this area, integrating the Schiebel 100 Camcopter in the toolbox and the M-Cube software. Similarly, Brown told AI that AEUK has also been looking at the integration of such systems.

Although not quite as integrated as UAVs will likely be in these toolboxes, the USN has been a precursor in the domain of 3D MCM with the integration of Northrop Grumman’s Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) into the MH-60S helicopters. The ALMDS’ mission is to detect, classify and localise floating and near-surface moored mines to provide a rapid wide-area reconnaissance and assessment of mine threats in littoral zones, confined straits, choke points and amphibious objective areas for Carrier and Expeditionary Strike Groups (CSG/ESG). The AN/AES-1 ALMDS reached operational capability with the USN in 2017, and in October 2023 Northrop Grumman announced that it had been awarded a contract from Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) to equip the company’s KUH-1 Surion helicopter with the ALMDS.

Smarter Autonomous MCM

As the number of systems included in a given MCM toolbox continues to increase – more UxVs, more sensors – so will the complexity of autonomous operations and analysis of growing amounts of data. The inevitable question, in such context, is: how will these toolboxes evolve to continue facilitating the life of MCM system of systems operators?

Unsurprisingly, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) feature highly in the list of priorities for future improvements, especially on two levels.

First, AI and ML are set to improve obstacle avoidance. “Today we have a very good collision avoidance algorithm, but these do not include recognition – and learning – of what the obstacle was,” Cunnel explained. As such, where a seasoned mariner would first recognise an obstacle in the distance and take decisions early on according to known patterns of behaviour, an autonomous system is currently limited to mere avoidance upon detection. “We want to explore how to make the USV act more like a mariner,” Cunnel added.

Similarly, Exail will also leverage advances in AI and ML to improve navigation. Beyond smarter obstacle avoidance, the team told Armada that future improvements will also look at facilitating autonomous re-tasking. If a system avoids an obstacle while it is scanning an area, this automatically creates a gap, but if the system recognises that it has left a gap it can automatically re-task itself to go back and map the area it had previously missed. “Effectively, it’s a matter of comparing the planned area of work with the actual mapped area and filling the gaps where needed,” the team explained.

Second, AI and ML will also have a significant role to play in providing better situational awareness and continuously reducing operators’ workload. Giannoni explained that AI-enabled faster onboard processing would increase mission optimisation: “If UxVs send snippets of information as soon as data has been gathered, processed and analysed, the operator can already start inserting such information into a next mission before the UxV is even back for post-mission analysis.”

Seabed Warfare Continum

Current advances in unmanned MCM missions owe much to the commercial domain. Several of the systems now on offer as part of the toolbox in companies such as Atlas Elektronik, Exail and Saab have their origins in the Oil & Gas (O&G) domain. As the term ‘seabed warfare’ gains increasing attention and importance in navies across the world, the duality of these systems is set to remain critical.

“The French seabed warfare strategy [published in February 2022] demonstrates very clearly that mine warfare is part of a broad continuum that goes from the water surface all the way down to 6000m depths,” Giannoni told Armada. Key, in such context, is understanding how the system of systems vision will evolve.

In fact, for both Exail and Saab this will hinge on keeping the systems agnostic and capable of working in concert with a wide range of other systems used for critical infrastructure protection. “One of the key issues industry and navies will have to look at is how all these systems will work and communicate together, how to standardise the data and to use the toolbox efficiently across missions from surface to seabed,” Lade concluded. In other words, how MCM missions will continue moving across dimensions.

by Dr. Alix Valenti

[백선호]

지뢰 치우는 일을 UGV가 하듯이 기뢰 치우는 일도 무인 시스템에게 맡기는 것이 맞을 것 같습니다.

[위종민]

비단 군대뿐만 아니라, 미래에는 누군가는 해야 되지만 힘들거나 위험한 일들은 AI랑 로봇이 하지 않을까 싶네요.