Thales, pioneer in mine countermeasures: anticipating threats, securing the future

From conventional mine hunting to autonomous systems, Thales helps navies stay one-step ahead.

For more than fifty years, Thales has remained a pioneer in Mine Countermeasures, continuously adapting its technologies to the evolving needs of naval forces. Our strength lies in anticipating future challenges and transforming them into opportunities for innovation. From traditional sonars to fully autonomous systems, Thales has consistently redefined how navies detect, identify and neutralize underwater threats.

 Each new generation of solutions reflects our commitment to performance, interoperability and safety, enabling navies to operate with confidence in increasingly complex maritime environments. Driven by innovation and guided by experience, Thales continues to shape the future of Mine Countermeasures, ensuring that navies are always one-step ahead.

A changing world beneath the waves

As global security dynamics evolve, the underwater domain has become a critical theater of operations. The proliferation of modern mines, asymmetric tactics, and contested maritime zones has redefined the way navies must operate. Ensuring freedom of navigation and protecting sea lanes now requires faster decision-making, integrated systems, and advanced situational awareness.

Thales supports this transformation by designing technologies that not only respond to emerging threats but anticipate them, combining decades of operational experience with continuous innovation.

Turning challenges into innovation

Every new challenge has driven Thales to innovate. Our teams have consistently turned operational complexity into technological advantage. By integrating high-performance sensors, AI-driven sonar data processing and autonomous systems, we enable naval forces to detect, classify, and neutralize underwater threats with unmatched precision and speed.

The evolution from conventional minehunting to fully autonomous operations marks a turning point in naval capability. With the Maritime Mine Countermeasures (MMCM) programme, Thales has automated critical phases of MCM missions, reducing human risk, shortening response times, and enhancing mission reliability.

Interoperability and adaptability at the core

Modern mine warfare requires seamless coordination among allied forces. Thales ensures this interoperability through open architectures and mission systems capable of integrating data from multiple sensors, vehicles, and fleets. This approach allows navies to share a unified tactical picture and coordinate multinational operations effectively.

Our modular design philosophy ensures each solution can evolve alongside operational needs and technological progress. Whether deployed for coastal protection, expeditionary operations, strategic deterrence, and seabed warfare, Thales systems offer flexibility, scalability, and future readiness, essential assets in today’s unpredictable maritime environment.

Hybrid systems: bridging the gap between conventional and autonomous warfare

The transition from conventional to fully autonomous systems is not abrupt; it is a deliberate, progressive evolution shaped by operational feedback and technological maturity.

At the heart of this transformation stands Thales’ hybrid approach, embodied by the Expeditionary Pathmaster: a truly modular, interoperable, and scalable System of Systems that bridges traditional minehunters and next-generation autonomous fleets.

Hybrid systems combine the best of both worlds:

• Modularity and scalability, allowing navies to incrementally integrate autonomous capabilities into existing platforms.
• Agility and versatility, ensuring rapid deployment across various mission types, from littoral surveillance to expeditionary operations.
• Interoperability, through the management of third-party UUVs, USVs, and ROVs, enabling collaboration with allied forces.
• Data-driven superiority, thanks to AI-enabled processing and mission systems that reduce operator workload and enhance decision-making speed.

This hybrid phase represents a strategic bridge, combining human expertise and machine intelligence to ensure operational superiority while preparing for a fully autonomous future.

Comprehensive Support Services that ensures support readiness

At Thales, we understand that mission success depends as much on readiness as on technology. We work alongside navies to ensure that crews are trained, systems are maintained, and operations can be launched at short notice.

Our Comprehensive Support Services include training programs, maintenance, modernization — ensuring Operational Support Readiness.

This holistic approach ensures that every Thales system remains reliable, mission-ready, and fully integrated throughout its lifecycle.

Leading the new era of mine warfare

Thales’ commitment to innovation continues to shape the future of naval autonomy. The MMCM programme, co-developed with the French and British navies, represents a major technological leap: autonomous and remotely operated systems now perform minehunting missions with reduced risks to personal and assets.

In December 2024, Thales delivered the first fully autonomous minehunting system to the French Navy, followed in March 2025 by an equivalent system for the Royal Navy. These milestones confirm Thales’ role as a pioneer in naval autonomy and its ability to translate vision into operational reality.

Behind every Thales solution lies decades of collaboration with naval operators worldwide. Our strength comes from understanding real operational needs and continuously adapting to new ones. Each generation of systems embodies the lessons learned at sea, refined through experience, feedback, and a relentless drive for excellence.

As Mine Countermeasures enter a new era, Thales continues to lead the way, combining performance, interoperability, and strategic foresight to help navies safeguard global maritime security and preserve freedom of navigation for generations to come.