U.S. Navy to team with Germany on undersea mine detection

PANAMA CITY, Fla., Aug. 12 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy's Naval Surface Warfare Center is preparing for the first major milestone of the Allied Munitions Detection Underwater program next month, when the service teams with Germany for a Baltic Sea mine mapping mission, the sea service said.

Mine warfare experts will take technology that includes acoustic and magnetic sensors to the Baltic Sea to operate with comparable German systems in order to learn from each other and advance the tech used to classify, detect and map bottom and buried munitions, Naval Sea Systems Command said in a statement Thursday.

The Bundeswehr Technical Center for Ships and Naval Weapons, Maritime Technology and Research is representing the German side.

A global capability shortfall exists when it comes to reliable techniques for mapping underwater munitions for unexploded ordnance remediation and hunting buried and stealthy sea mines in complex environs, NAVSEA said.

The program began in 2015 and develops, tests and evaluates novel unmanned autonomous survey concepts through sea trials and workshops.

It also aims to develop and deliver a mature system concept design to NAVSEA for eventual transition into the fleet.