Feature 7 | MINE COUNTERMEASURES VESSELS


Finnish MCMV has two unmanned vehicles


Te Finnish Navy’s newest mine countermeasures vessels (MCMVs) – the Katanpää class – are among the first in the world equipped with Kongsberg’s HUGIN 1000 AUV, and will also be equipped with two Remus man-portable AUVs.


The first of the Katanpää class MCMVs recently commenced sea acceptance tests (photo: Finnish Navy/Intermarine). I t is sometimes naval vessels said that mine


countermeasures vessels are the most sophisticated and difficult to specify and build,


after submarines. They have to be shock-proof and at the same time their underwater signatures – acoustic, magnetic and electromagnetic – must to be as low as possible. During combat operations mine


countermeasures vessels detect and neutralise mines or ‘sweep’ them; in peacetime,


they are often required to


carry out a range of other tasks, such as hydrographic survey. The contract


for the design and


construction of the Katanpää class was awarded to Intermarine in Italy. According to IHS Janes, construction began in July 2007 using a new design making use of composite materials. Te second vessel was started in March 2008 and the third vessel in February 2009. However, IHS Janes notes, the shipyard


was devastated by a flood in early 2009 which caused a 12-month delay in the first-of-class which was eventually launched in 2009. The new vessels are replacing the Kuha class minesweepers


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that date from 1974-1975, having been modernised in the late 1990s. At the time of writing, the first of the


Katanpää class vessels had commenced sea acceptance tests, a process which was expected to take three to four months, aſter which the vessel was due to be delivered to the Finnish Navy. Te second and third Katanpää class vessels will follow the first at approximately six-month intervals. Once in service, they will have a range


of tasks including bottom mapping and route survey, harbour protection, localisation and neutralisation of bottom, moored and driſting mines. Te Finnish Navy is not the first to have


adopted the HUGIN AUV – which is also in service with the Royal Norwegian Navy – but is the first to use the larger HUGIN 1000 and the somewhat smaller Remus AUV as well. Kongsberg had worked closely with


the Royal Norwegian Navy for more than a decade during the development of the HUGIN 1000 and it was partly because of this longstanding naval experience, and the Finnish Navy’s own tests, that it decided to select a range of Kongsberg technologies for the Katanpää class.


Since the contract for the HUGIN 1000


was awarded, Kongsberg has acquired the manufacturer of the Remus AUV, Hydroid. Te REMUS 100 was designed for shallow- water operation, and can be operated from small craft such as rigid-hull inflatable boats. Hydroid also manufactures the REMUS 600 AUV, a longer range vehicle, and Kongsberg is actively working to harmonise the HUGIN and REMUS product lines. “When this programme was still in the


planning phase, we invited 10 different navies


from across Europe to bring


their mine countermeasure vessels to our waters,” said a spokesperson for the Finnish Navy. “We put them through their paces. Twelve different sensor systems on 11 different vessels were tested, including those from leading Norwegian, Swedish, British, French and Danish companies. “What we found was that some of the


systems that excelled in the Mediterranean and the North Sea didn’t work as well in Baltic Sea conditions,” which are characterised by multiple layers of water and more extreme temperatures. During the tests, the Finnish Navy also discovered that, in the conditions


Warship Technology July/August 2011


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