Atlas Elektronik UK contracted to deliver additional ARCIMS USV to RN

The UK Ministry of Defence has ordered five Atlas Elektronik UK ARCIMS systems in total. (Atlas Elektronik UK)

Atlas Elektronik UK is to supply an additional ARCIMS mine countermeasures (MCM) unmanned surface vehicle (USV) to the UK Royal Navy (RN), bringing the number of ARCIMS platforms ordered by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to five.

In a 31 January announcement, the company said it had been contracted by the MoD's Defence Equipment and Support Mine Hunting Capability (MHC) team to deliver the additional system – to be named RNMB Hydra.

ARCIMS is a modular 11 m USV that can integrate different MCM payloads. Four systems – RNMBs Hussar, Halcyon, Harrier, and Hazard – have previously been delivered by Atlas Elektronik UK to support the MHC Sweep and Project Wilton programmes.

Hydra is planned for delivery to the RN in late 2022, and is scheduled for deployment for operational evaluation early 2023.

According to Atlas Elektronik UK, Hydra will be fitted with advanced sense and avoid autonomy, a launch and recovery system, and a towed sidescan sonar. Command-and-control will be exercised from a portable command centre and combines unmanned vehicle autonomy software with Seebyte's SeeTrack planning and analysis software.