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Thales welcomes Minister's statement on Maritime Autonomy

Maritime Autonomy will help revolutionise Royal Navy Operations

Thales welcomes the announcement by Gavin Williamson MP, the Secretary of State for Defence, that MOD will invest £75 million in pioneering new technology to revolutionise Royal Navy operations, including maritime autonomous systems.

The funding will be spent on two new autonomous mine-hunter vessels with improved operational capabilities and a new joint military and industry hi-tech accelerator, called NavyX.

This new accelerator will look to improve the way the Navy buys the latest technology, thus streamlining the process and creating a facility where industry, military and academia can cooperate to test, assess and purchase new equipment.

Victor Chavez, CEO of Thales in the UK, says:

Thales stands ready to support this important initiative to accelerate the pace of innovation to support the Royal Navy. This is a great opportunity to leverage the experience gained through the development of autonomous technologies under the Anglo-French MMCM programme and the use of the Maritime Autonomy Centres of Excellence at Turnchapel and Brest

Working alongside the Royal Navy and their French counterparts, we have been able to develop, test and deploy world-class autonomous mine countermeasure systems as well as shape some of the operational factors, which are key to delivering military effect.

This exciting announcement will ensure that RN operators get the ground breaking innovative technology they need to face the next generation of threats - safely.