The German Parliament has recently awarded an ambitious R&D programme for future Mine Counter Warfare at sea – Minehunting 2000 to a consortium consisting of Abeking & Rasmussen, EADS, Lürssen and STN ATLAS Elektronik. This project aims to develop a remote controlled Mine Hunting Drone, as an improvement of the existing and well proven remote controlled Influential Sweep Drone of German Navy, the Troika System, which was used in the Persian Gulf. Abeking & Rasmussen will contribute its SWATH@A&R® technology for the vessels - a platform that allows operation even under adverse weather and sea conditions will be the key element of this programme.

The new Mine Hunting Drone design will be derived from a commercial design of two 25m SWATH@A&R® Pilot Tenders which were delivered by Abeking & Rasmussen in 1999. For the past 3 years those vessels have proven their operational capabilities in the North Sea under adverse weather conditions. The next steps will be the design and construction of a demonstrator version, which will be used for testing various operational elements, including launching and retrieving of the towed sonar carrier. This demonstrator version will be financed by the industry and leased to the German Navy for the trials only. Parallel to these operational trials, the military version will be designed with all aspects of naval mine warfare vessels. This will be verified by construction of a testing section, which will be subjected to live blasting by a sea mine.