Underwater drones for mine clearance
U.S. forces have begun deploying underwater drones from suppliers including Kraken Robotics and Anduril’s Dive‑LD for mine‑clearance operations in strategic waterways, reflecting rising demand for maritime autonomous systems. The deployments highlight a growing operational role for submerged autonomy in defense logistics and safety missions. (x.com)
The U.S. military has started using underwater drones in mine-clearing operations as it works to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. (centcom.mil) U.S. Central Command said on April 11 that two guided-missile destroyers began “setting conditions” for mine clearance in the strait, and that additional forces, including underwater drones, would join “in the coming days.” (centcom.mil) An underwater drone is a robot submarine that searches the seafloor with sonar, which works like echolocation, so crews can find mines without sending sailors directly into the blast zone. The Navy’s mine-countermeasures package is built around unmanned surface and underwater vehicles that detect, localize and neutralize mines while the ship stays outside the minefield. (navy.mil) That shift has been building for years as the Navy moved away from older dedicated minesweepers. In March 2025, the first two operational Littoral Combat Ships carrying mine-countermeasures packages deployed from San Diego after more than a decade of delays and redesigns. (news.usni.org) The legacy fleet is already shrinking. The Navy decommissioned its last four Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships in Bahrain in September 2025 after nearly 40 years of service. (navy.mil) That has pushed more of the mission onto autonomous systems and the units that run them. The Navy says Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Squadron 1 operates vehicles ranging from small Iver drones to the 85-foot Orca extra-large undersea vehicle. (csp.navy.mil) Anduril delivered its first Dive-LD vehicle to the Navy in April 2025 for that undersea drone force. The company says Dive-LD can stay submerged for 10 days, dive to 6,000 meters and carry modular payloads from a pier or support vessel. (anduril.com) Kraken Robotics has been working with the Navy on the sensing side of the problem. The company signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in 2024 to develop next-generation synthetic aperture sonar, a high-resolution imaging method used to spot objects on the seabed. (krakenrobotics.com) Kraken also said this month that it demonstrated autonomous launch and recovery of its KATFISH towed synthetic aperture sonar from an unmanned surface vessel in tests off Türkiye. That setup pairs a robot boat on the surface with a mine-hunting sensor below it. (navalnews.com) The immediate job in Hormuz is clearing a safe lane for commercial shipping. The longer-term picture is that mine warfare, once centered on slow wooden ships and helicopter sleds, is moving toward networks of sonar-equipped robots above and below the water. (centcom.mil, news.usni.org)
