French Navy's SLAM-F Mine Warfare Drones Can Tell a Mine From a Rock 300 Meters Deep

France’s defense procurement agency has ordered chartered Protée support vessels to extend the French Navy’s SLAM-F unmanned mine countermeasures system into offshore waters. Each planned module pairs two unmanned surface vessels with two underwater vehicles, using a Thales multi-view sonar to help distinguish mines, legacy ordnance and rocks at depths of up to 300 meters. Once operators flag a contact, a surface vessel can deploy a remotely operated vehicle for identification and, if authorized, mine disposal. France ordered about a dozen additional surface and underwater drones alongside the charter in July 2026.