UK donates drones to Kiev to search for sea mines

Alexander Sychev

These courses are organized jointly by the British Navy and the US 6th Fleet in connection with the forthcoming transfer of six autonomous mine-hunting vehicles to the Ukrainian armed forces. London will provide three of them from the stocks of the British fleet, and buy three more from the American company Hydroid Inc.

There are several types of underwater drones in service with the British Navy. There are among them, for example, the Manta drone, the range of which reaches three thousand kilometers. But the Ukrainian army will be given the simplest of them - a light autonomous vehicle Remus-100. The number one hundred in its name means the maximum depth at which it can work - one hundred meters.

Remus is a whole family of autonomous underwater vehicles that the American Oceanographic Institute at Woods Hole developed for its research. They were intended for purely civilian purposes - to explore the oceans, but, as often happens, the drone attracted the attention of the military. The manufacturing company has made some design changes, and today these drones are in service with the navies of 13 countries.

Lightweight autonomous drone Remus-100 is designed to search for mines in shallow waters in coastal areas. Representatives of the British government claim that they are transferring drones so that the Ukrainians can detect mines almost throughout the Black Sea. The official goal of London is to promote the safety of the movement of ships with Ukrainian grain.

The Remus-100 robot does not destroy mines. He detects them and indicates the location, which makes it possible to draw up maps with minefields in the right directions and identify the abandoned passages.

The weight of the device is only 36 kilograms. Its length is 1.6 meters and its diameter is 19 centimeters. It is capable of moving under water at a maximum speed of about five knots (approximately nine kilometers per hour) for 10 hours. But with a cruising speed of 3 knots, the device can keep working for about 20 hours. During this time, he is able to explore the depths of the sea at a distance of about 60 kilometers.

The drone is equipped with a temperature sensor, depth and speed meters of underwater currents, dual-frequency sonar (900/1800 kHz), capable of forming three-dimensional images with a resolution of about six centimeters. The military vehicles are equipped with two side-scan sonar. They capture objects the size of a soccer ball.

The drone can be launched from any vessel up to the boat, which Washington has already shipped to Kiev. However, in the US Navy, to work with drones, which American sailors call Mk18 Swardfish (“Swordfish”), they usually use rigid-hulled inflatable boats. They fit two drones. Management is carried out from any portable computer. Four vehicles can be simultaneously in the search area, moving along given points, orienting themselves in space using the inertial navigation system and GPS.