On December the first, the European consortium led by Naval Group Belgium kicked off the MIne RIsk CLearance for Europe (MIRICLE) undertaking for which it was chosen in July 2021 by the European Fee and authorised by the Member States. This 24-months undertaking goals at attaining a European and sovereign capability sooner or later mine warfare and can create a path for the subsequent era ‘made in Europe’ countermeasure options. The kick-off assembly was held immediately with MIRICLE’s 19 companions. With the rising risk of mines and improvised explosive units current in all conflicts involving naval forces, nations must strengthen the safety of their maritime area, make sure the safety of their property, and safeguard the liberty of civil navigation. On this regard, mine countermeasures (MCM) are present process a significant working transition, from conventional mine-hunting to an unmanned and autonomous modern answer.
To reply the longer term wants of European navies, a consortium led by Naval Group Belgium has been chosen by the European Union to outline and develop a expertise and functionality roadmap for the subsequent era of European maritime mine countermeasures capabilities. Often called MIRICLE (Mine Danger Clearance for Europe), the 24-month undertaking is being sponsored by the European Fee and eight European Union member states below the umbrella of the European Defence Industrial Growth Program (EDIDP). The MIRICLE consortium consists of 19 companions representing 10 nations: Belgium, Estonia, France, Greece, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and The Netherlands. Belgium is the lead nation and Naval Group Belgium is the coordinator of the consortium. Naval Group Belgium will facilitate the gathering and works performed by the companions by means of its MCM Laboratory, lately launched in its premises in Brussels particularly to help R&D collaborative initiatives. All of the Belgian members of MIRICLE are a part of the MCM Lab.
Commercial
Géraldine Dupin, MIRICLE undertaking coordinator for Naval Group Belgium stated: “We’re proud to steer this distinctive consortium of European companions to develop an modern counter naval mine warfare answer and pave the way in which of the subsequent era of countermeasure options “made in Europe”, and profit from such a robust help from European Navies. Collectively, we’re dedicated to serving to the European naval group to pursue the event of a breakthrough mine motion functionality”.
Extra particularly, the MIRICLE undertaking has three aims:
to offer a complete and forward-looking definition and evaluation of the MCM applied sciences ;
to elaborate a technological improvement roadmap for next-generation countermeasure options, that corresponds to Member States’ procurement plans and paves the way in which for future European Defence Funds (EDF) developments ;
to coordinate the event of an interoperable new sort of property (vessels) and MCM Toolbox.
This undertaking will cowl examine, design, prototyping, and check actions, all devoted to strengthening R&D cooperation and technical excellence in mine countermeasures of the European nations. European navies will thus reinforce their MCM capabilities to maintain tempo with an ever-evolving, advanced and pervasive mine risk.
As Navies have been satisfied that mine countermeasures are a worldwide European challenge and that developments must embody completely different visions, it was determined to go a step additional ongoing undertaking within the subject and to collect, key European companions and Navies to create the European MCM tomorrow’s group and to reply the European Fee name. By Choosing the MIRICLE consortium, the European Union will dramatically contribute to strengthening the potential improvement on this subject in addition to higher integration of the EU’s Defence Technological and Industrial Base. MIRICLE will allow vital enhancements to hold out all MCM missions and can extra particularly allow European navies to learn from the best and most interoperable navy mine countermeasures capabilities, by NATO suggestions. These improvements will complement the principle parts of mine warfare, made up of the Mine Counter Measure (MCM) vessel, the “Toolbox” composed of unmanned automobiles and robots and the mission administration system, the communication community, and synthetic Intelligence-powered resolution making. These facets are being watched out with a cyber strategy.
The power of the Naval Group Belgium-led consortium is that it consists of companions with complementary technological expertise and modern approaches. It is going to foster and stimulate a detailed collaboration between trade and analysis companions to pursue R&D actions with the purpose of accelerating the event of improvements and getting ready the evolution of mine warfare methods over time. Collectively, MIRICLE companions will improve MCM toolboxes to convey them to a better diploma of maturity by growing minefield instrumentation to optimize navigation and communication, thus optimizing mine detection, identification, and neutralization. The vessels can even profit from improvements by means of the event of (semi)-autonomous Mine Countermeasures Vessel (MCMV) platforms, the advance of interoperability & standardization, in addition to by means of the event of a scalable clever multi-UxV mission administration system and an evolutive UxV Launch and Restoration System (LARS) onboard platform and docking.
The companions of the MIRICLE consortium led by Naval Group Belgium are Eca Robotics (France); Eca Group (Belgium); Thales (France); Cafa Tech (Estonia); TNO (The Netherlands); Forceapp BV (The Netherlands); House Functions Providers (Belgium); Elwave SAS (France); Sociedad Anónima de Electrónica, Submarina S.M.E, SAES (Spain); Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee, VLIZ (Belgium); TERRA SPATIUM SA (Greece); Workplace Nationwide d’Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales, ONERA (France); DotOcean N.V. (Belgium) O?rodek Badawczo-Rozwojowy Centrum Techniki Morskiej S.A., CTM (Poland); SISTRADE SOFTWARE CONSULTING SA (Portugal); Belss Ltd (Latvia) and Agen?ia de Cercetare pentru Tehnic? ?i Tehnologii Militare -Navy Gear and Applied sciences Analysis Company, METRA (Romania).
