{"id":430,"date":"2026-03-04T09:52:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T09:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cmre.nato.int\/ar25\/?page_id=430"},"modified":"2026-04-14T18:57:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T16:57:52","slug":"autonomous-naval-mine-warfare","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.cmre.nato.int\/ar25\/autonomous-naval-mine-warfare\/","title":{"rendered":"Autonomous Naval Mine Warfare"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Autonomous Naval Mine Warfare<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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FUNDING BODY: NATO ALLIED COMMAND TRANSFORMATION<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Naval mine warfare (NMW) is probably one of the most cost-effective forms of maritime warfare, and is an archetypal example of both an asymmetric threat and a \u2018loitering\u2019 munition.\u00a0 During the first Gulf War in 1991, USS Princeton<\/em> actuated a Manta mine costing few tens of thousands of dollars that removed a two-year old $2 billion asset\u2014and the coalition force\u2019s primary threat-sector anti-air warfare ship\u2014from the fight.<\/p>

The threat posed by naval mines is as relevant today as it has ever been, as witnessed by both Ukraine and Russia laying mines in the Black Sea during Russia\u2019s illegal war in Ukraine.\u00a0 And similar to their land counterparts, once deployed, mines rarely respect the international laws of armed conflict, and will target both military and commercial shipping.<\/p>

Active naval mine countermeasures (MCM)\u2014operations to remove mines\u2014are difficult, slow and very dangerous.\u00a0 So the CMRE\u2019s NMW Programme focuses on developing novel sensors to detect naval mines more effectively, especially in difficult environments, increasing the speed of operations by using multiple unmanned systems cooperating with each other, and increasing safety by using autonomous systems, thereby removing the human operator from the minefield.<\/p>

Research under the NMW Programme improves the Alliance\u2019s ability to counter naval mines using autonomous uncrewed networked capabilities.\u00a0 Research is carried out along the following strands:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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