The French Ministry of Defense and Veterans has announced that approximately 12 additional surface and underwater drones will be ordered as part of the modernization of the country’s Naval Forces (Navy) maritime mine countermeasures capabilities.
Sea-news.az reports that it is planned to lease special auxiliary marine vessels to transport and deploy new UAV and robotic drone systems to operational regions. The main goal is to strengthen the protection of waters close to France’s mainland coasts and strategic maritime corridors.
This step has been taken within the framework of the “Future Mine Countermeasures System” (SLAM-F) program implemented under the leadership of the Directorate General for Armaments (DGA) and the Military Programming Law covering 2024–2030. The main target of the SLAM-F program is to detect and neutralize sea mines using remotely controlled systems while reducing the vital risk to personnel to zero.
The SLAM-F project relies on a broad European maritime partnership:
- Drone technologies: Developed jointly with the United Kingdom.
- Carrier marine platforms: Formed on the basis of military cooperation with the Belgian and Netherlands Navies.
The ministry stated that current global geopolitical tension shows that the risks posed by sea mines to commercial and military shipping have sharply increased. This program serves to protect navigation safety at sea and the operational freedom of the naval forces.
In addition, it is planned that the French Navy will be equipped with new special support vessels for mine-clearing divers and drone-carrying mine countermeasures vessels (MCMVs) in the coming years. These marine platforms will enable the application of unmanned systems in distant waters and long-term maritime missions.
