Halcyon
Gallery
Overview
Thales' 12 m mine-hunting USV at the heart of the Anglo-French Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MMCM) system.
Halcyon is the uncrewed surface vessel at the centre of the Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MMCM) system that Thales developed for the Royal Navy and French Navy. The roughly 12 m, 3.5 m-wide boat, built by L3Harris to a Thales UK and L3Harris design, tows Thales' Towed Synthetic Aperture Sonar to map the seabed and find mines, then deploys a Saab ROV to identify and help neutralise them, while sailors stay well outside the minefield on a mothership or ashore. It first demonstrated the concept in Royal Navy exercises such as Unmanned Warrior and is the basis of both navies' move from crewed minehunters to stand-off, drone-based mine clearance.
Primary Roles
Notes
About 12 m long and 3.5 m wide; designed by Thales UK and L3Harris UK and built by L3Harris. It tows Thales' T-SAS sonar and deploys a Saab ROV for mine identification, as part of a toolkit that also includes AUVs and portable operations centres. Speed is not published.
