Thales has won a £10 million contract to provide Remote Control Centres (RCCs) to the Royal Navy to help coordinate mine countermeasures operations by autonomous assets.
The new mobile RCCs, which use Thales’ Mi-Map and M-Cube applications, “will allow personnel to quickly deploy command centres and control autonomous Mine Hunting Systems anywhere in the world,” as per a Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) press statement.
Thales said the initial £10 million contract helping to provide next-generation mine countermeasures capabilities to the Royal Navy could eventually be extended to up to £100 million.
DE&S is the arm of the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) responsible for buying, supporting, and delivering equipment and services for all the armed forces.
Mine-Hunting Capability Team Leader at DE&S Andy Lapsley commented: “These next-generation Remote Command Centres will transform how the Royal Navy conducts mine countermeasures operations.”
He added: “Delivering the flexibility, speed and operational advantage our sailors need is a crucial step on our journey towards the hybrid Navy and demonstrates the UK’s world-leading position in both Mine Counter Measures and maritime autonomous systems (MAS).”
The RCC contract complements the Thales Portable Operations Centre (POC) already delivered to the Royal Navy. The new Thales UK system enables command and control (C2) of multiple autonomous platforms simultaneously.
Managing Director of Thales UK’s Subsea Systems business Paul Armstrong said: “Thales is proud of the trust the Royal Navy has placed in us to provide mine countermeasures capabilities… This new generation of drone-dedicated command centres is part of a flexible suite of autonomous C2 systems, ranging from containerized solutions to maritime operations centres or large land-based operations centres.”
- You can read more details on the Thales website and the DE&S website