New Delhi: The Ministry of Defence has released a Request For Information (RFI) in order to procure 12 Mine Countermeasure (MCM) vessels for the Indian Navy from Indian shipyards. The order is planned to be split between two shipyards in the ratio of 8:4
Standoff MCM capability using unmanned assets is the critical design driver sought for by the Navy. The new MCM vessel class will act as a mothership for the unmanned MCM assets, remaining outside the minefield and using an onboard MCM command and control system to administer operations.
The MCM vessels should be about 87 meters long, 15 meters wide and have a draught of 4.1 meters. The 2,800 ton ships should have a service life of 30 years. CODOE propulsion configuration is required with two diesel engines and two electric motors, enabling the ship to sail at speeds of over 20 knots. The ships’ crew complement should not be more than 75 sailors.
The MCM vessel would have the capability to launch, recover and operate two Compact Autonomous Surface Craft All Domain Effects (CASCADE) Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV), four Heavy Weight Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (HWAUV) and one ship launched Multi Utility Long Endurance (MULE) multicopter or Naval Shipborne Unmanned Aerial System (NSUAS). At least 20 Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) will be carried by the ship.
The CASCADE ASVs would be about 12 meters long while the 1.5 ton HWAUVs will be 5 meters long with a diameter of 21 inches. The ROVs would be 2 meters long with a diameter of 9 inches and weight of 50kg. The CASCADE ASV will transport HWAUVs and ROVs from the mothership to identify, classify and neutralise the mines. The ASV will be equipped with towed acoustic and influence sweep equipment. These will coordinate with HWAUVs using side-scan and synthetic aperture sonar to detect potential mines. Identification, classification and neutralisation of mines will be conducted by ROVs transported by CASCADE into the minefield.
The MULE multicopter or NSUAS will provide comprehensive situational awareness in the minefield and acts as relay between AUVs and mothership. The vessels would feature integrated composite masts. Primary underwater sensors onboard the MCM vessels would include hull mounted mine hunting sonar and a forward looking mine & obstacle detection sonar.
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