Mine busters

During the first Gulf War, Iraq laced the Kuwait shoreline with tens of thousands of underwater mines in an attempt to stop US marines from landing. After the war, minesweepers removed more than 13,000 mines from the Persian Gulf but military officials believe there are many more to be found, presenting an ongoing danger to troops now stationed in the area.

However, dealing with the arsenal of underwater mines around the world is a terrifyingly dangerous business.

Despite the range of robotic options available to the world’s navies, in many cases mine clearance relies on specially-trained scuba divers, who swim down to visually identify the target or place explosive charges to dispose of it. Unsurprisingly, these missions are fraught with danger.

The latest tool to keep service personnel at a safe distance is the Talisman, an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) developed by BAE Systems, which can detect and destroy underwater mines. Its first production-ready model is being tested and it is hoped this car-sized robotic vehicle can help eliminate the need to use scuba divers in locating and destroying mines.

BAE System’s Andy Tonge is the Talisman’s project manager at the firm’s Underwater Systems Group, based at Waterlooville near Portsmouth. In his opinion mine warfare is a factor of more than just current conflicts; there are also many mines that have lain undiscovered since World Wars I and II.

‘Mine warfare is a war activity where the technology is very cheap and easy to use, so it will always be an issue,’ he said. ‘What we need is a technology that enables us to remotely operate from over the horizon with a degree of autonomy.’

Talisman is the combination of three phases of mine clearance technologies. One sonar-equipped vehicle is used to go out and locate mine-like objects, followed by a second vehicle equipped with cameras that can classify them. The third phase, which in some cases consists of little more than a trained clearance diver, is then engaged to dispose of the mine. Talisman is designed to combine these phases into one, sleek, manoeuvrable vehicle.

While Talisman is designed to autonomously detect and classify mine-like objects, human input is still required for the actual disposal, albeit from a distance. Upon the discovery of a mine, Talisman rises to the surface and transmits data via UHF radio to the command ship, which could be up to a few kilometres away. A human operator then controls the disposal technology — the BAE-designed remotely-operated vehicle called Archerfish.

Each Talisman vehicle is fitted with four ‘Archerfish’ single-shot mine neutralisers, which are connected to the Talisman via fibre optic cable. The Archerfish goes in to video the suspected mine and this footage is transmitted back to the command ship. The operator on board the ship can then use the Archerfish to detonate a charge to dispose of the mine.

For Tonge it is crucial that a human operator takes control of this vital, final stage. ‘Even though the technology is very close to support full autonomous disposal of mines, you have to have a man in the loop to make sure first that it is a mine you are destroying and also to make sure it is done satisfactorily,’ he said.

Although Talisman is built as a stealth submarine, it must rise to the surface before it can transmit video because underwater acoustic communications do not have the bandwidth to support video streaming, said Tonge.