The Chantiers de l’Atlantique – Abeilles International consortium has been selected to deploy a comprehensive autonomous mine warfare capability, operational on the high seas, to strengthen the French Navy’s underwater intervention capability.

This involves the joint deployment of vessels, drones and associated control centres. It marks a new phase in France’s SLAM-F mine warfare programme, which was approved in July 2026 by the French Minister for the Armed Forces.

The two civilian naval platforms, in the Multi-Purpose Special Vessel class, chartered from Abeilles International and Chantiers de l’Atlantique for around ten years, are named ‘Protée’.They will be manned by a mixed civilian crew to operate the vessel, alongside a detachment from the French Navy’s drone-based mine warfare unit.

This modular architecture “ensures high availability, facilitates the reconfiguration of the vessels and enables a potential of 320 mission days per vessel, with a 24-hour readiness capability,” states the French Ministry for the Armed Forces.