To meet the growing complexity of modern mine countermeasure missions, Forcys and Eelume have joined forces to deliver a new class of agile autonomous capability. Pairing Eelume’s manoeuvrable autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) platform with Forcys’ integrated sonar and optical systems from Wavefront Systems and Voyis, will enables navies to locate, assess and confirm underwater threats with greater certainty across complex seabed terrain.

Together, these technologies mark a major advance in autonomous and networked mine countermeasure operations, allowing smaller and smarter systems to deliver the same certainty and coverage once limited to large, manned vessels.

Clearing and securing coastal waters, harbours and confined seabed areas remains one of the most difficult tasks faced by navies today. Conventional AUVs are optimised either for endurance or manoeuvrability, rarely both. In shallow or topographically complex terrain, these limitations create data blind spots, forcing navies to rely on slower and less certain minesweeping techniques.

Thomas Nygaard, CEO at Eelume, said, “Modern mines hide in the most challenging seabed environments — among rocks, slopes and narrow channels that traditional AUVs can’t fully access. Eelume S combines detection, classification and identification in one system, eliminating the need for ROV operations and reducing time-consuming mine sweeping through its manoeuvrability, advanced sensor suite and in-mission processing capabilities. This keeps personnel and vessels out of the minefield and makes MCM safer, faster and more efficient.”

The challenge lay in developing a compact, versatile platform that could deliver both wide-area detection and detailed inspection in any seabed environment, from open waters to confined littoral zones, without compromising range or endurance.

Forcys acts as the integrator of a powerful ecosystem of subsea technologies, bringing together proven innovations from across its group to deliver fully optimised solutions for the end user.

Through the integration of Wavefront Systems’ multi-aperture sonar Solstice and Voyis’ optical imaging systems, Forcys will enable Eelume S to achieve both the wide-area efficiency and close-range fidelity essential to modern MCM missions.

• Solstice delivers image quality close to synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) but at roughly one-tenth of the data burden and with substantially lower power demand. Its tolerance to platform motion makes it ideal for shallow-water and high-relief environments, requiring frequent manoeuvres, where SAS systems are less effective.
  
• Voyis Observer Imaging System provides high-resolution stills with true-colour representation, enabling rapid visual identification of potential threats once detected.

By acting as a single integration partner, Forcys ensures the optimal synergy between vehicle, sonar and camera systems, streamlining deployment and simplifying logistics for naval customers.

The Solution

The Eelume S platform introduces a flexible, bio-inspired propulsion system featuring dual counter-rotating propellers mounted on an articulated tail. This design grants independent control of pitch, yaw, and roll, allowing the vehicle to move fluidly around obstacles, maintain stability close to the seabed, and capture detailed sensor data in environments inaccessible to conventional AUVs.

Equipped with Forcys’ integrated sensor suite, Eelume S can perform wide-area sonar sweeps to detect and classify objects before transitioning seamlessly to close-range optical inspection for identification. The system’s compact size makes it easy to deploy from uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) for extended, fully remote multi-vehicle operations.

In trials across Norway’s complex coastal terrain, the platform demonstrated consistent area coverage and the ability to deliver actionable, high-resolution data at a fraction of the bandwidth normally required for SAS missions.

Thomas Nygaard, “We outperform traditional AUVs, not just on complex bathymetry, but also on flat seabeds because we can operate closer to the seabed and capture higher-quality images. With the Solstice MAS sonar integrated we get the best of both worlds, combining agile movement with the data quality needed to act quickly on targets.”

The Result

The integration of Eelume S with Forcys’ advanced sonar and imaging systems represents a major evolution in mine countermeasure capability.

The combined system enables Detection, Classification and Identification (DCI) from a single AUV, reducing mission time and complexity while increasing operational certainty.

The solution delivers:

• Greater operational certainty: Precise detection and identification even in confined, high-relief seabeds.
• Enhanced safety and efficiency: Reduced reliance on crewed minesweeping, minimising risk to personnel.
• Scalable autonomy: Compatibility with USVs and networked MCM concepts for coordinated multi-vehicle operations.
• Reduced data burden: Actionable information at lower bandwidth and power consumption, enabling faster mission processing.

For countries like the UK, where complex littoral zones, busy ports and vital offshore infrastructure demand reliable protection, this capability provides an agile and interoperable tool that enhances both national and NATO defence readiness.

Justin Hains, Forcys Business Development Manager, commented; “This collaboration with Eelume demonstrates how Forcys is enabling navies forces like the Royal Navy to operate more effectively in challenging environments previously considered unhuntable. The integration of Wavefront Systems MAS and Voyis imaging on the Eelume AUV delivers detection, classification and identification from a single platform, a capability proven in Norway’s fjords where traditional AUVs fail due to complex bathymetry. For UK missions at home and deployed, this means faster, safer and more reliable coverage across critical littoral zones.”

By bridging innovation and integration, Forcys and Eelume are transforming how the world’s navies see, understand, and secure the underwater domain.

Multi-Aperture Sonar (MAS) systems have been designed to deliver high-frequency, high-resolution, and long-range imaging data to improve the probability of detection of unexploded ordnance (UXO), mine-like objects, and improvised explosive devices (IED) while minimizing the probability of false alarms.

MAS outperforms traditional side-scan in virtually all underwater environments and is also known to deliver data approximating synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) at a fraction of the power required. Where MAS truly comes into its own is when operating in shallow to very shallow waters (SW, VSW) across the littoral. In these waters, the acoustic environment is particularly hostile. The output from traditional side-scan and synthetic apertures sonars (SAS) is affected by higher order multi-path reverberation, unstable velocity of sound profiles, often unknown, as well as significant bathymetry, baseline decorrelation effects and platforms that are unstable. The result is far less reliable end sonar products with greater impact to longer range systems. This is particularly acute in tidal and riverine environments.

However, the ease of MAS operations is not to be underestimated when planning a deep-water campaign. Effective operations save time and money.

Because MAS is simple to operate it can be easily integrated into your application. The following are just a few examples in the public domain that illustrate where Solstice MAS from our technology partner Wavefront Systems has been integrated:

• Viperfish ROTV: This remotely operated towed vehicle manufactured by our technology partner EIVA, has been specifically designed to deliver a next-generation mine hunting capability to unmanned surface vessels.

• L3Harris Iver 4 AUV: As part of a combined module with Voyis insight optical systems providing a one of a kind classify and identify capability.

• The Triton from Ocean Aero: This hybrid platform capable of sailing to a remote location and diving to acquire high quality seabed data. Read more here.

• Autosub Long Range AUV: A long range autonomous underwater vehicle manufactured by the National Oceanographic Centre. Find out more by following this link.

• Bluefin-9 and Bluefin-12 AUVs from GDMS: Equipped as standard and chosen to support the Royal Australian Navy’s SEA 1778 program.

• Seasword 2 USV: Selected Solstice as payload to deliver an MCM capability. For more information visit this news site.

• Double Eagle SAROV from SAAB: An MCM power horse, used to provide on stride classification, identification and neutralization capabilities.

Some key differentiation is follows:

• Performance to power ratio: No other system produces highly detailed mine-hunting data while hardly making a dent on the hotel load of the host platform.

• Performance in shallow waters: In depths of up to 30 m depth, SAS or lower frequency side-scans can be affected by multipath effects from the surface and seafloor. For some SAS systems these effects can compromise as much as 50% of their swath. For Solstice, the impact will typically be less than 10%.

• Simpler to operate: Unlike SAS, Solstice is simple to plan for as the range remains constant regardless of vehicle speed. There is no risk of a data holiday caused by sudden accelerations from currents. The result is more predictable and simpler to manage surveys.

Did you know that a version of Solstice exists that doubles the along-track resolution. The S4000  is longer and consumes more power, 37 W including on-board real time processing, but delivers improved performance to support identification of smaller targets across the whole 200 m swath.

If you would like to find out more please don’t hesitate to get in touch.