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Thales highlights uncrewed ASW systems
After mine warfare, uncrewed vehicles are now being deployed to hunt down submarines. At Euronaval, Thales is presenting a new generation of solutions designed to enhance detection capabilities and enable networking of manned and autonomous platforms.
- During REPMUS 2025, an ASW mission trial was planned using the M-Cube mission management system for ASW operations. ©Thales/Eloi Stichelbaut/PolaRyse.
- e-POC Portable Operations Centre, incorporating the M-Cube mission management system, shown here for mine warfare. ©Thales/Adrien Daste
- French Navy NH90 helicopter equipped with FLASH dipping sonar.
Following on from mine warfare, uncrewed vehicles are now tackling one of the most complex challenges of naval warfare: the detection, tracking and neutralisation of submarines, while minimising crew exposure. Unlike mines, which are essentially static, passive threats, submarines are mobile, stealthy adversaries capable of adapting their behaviour. Confronting such a threat requires a fundamental rethink of sensors, the degree of system autonomy and coordination between the various anti-submarine warfare (ASW) assets.
“In the field of ASW, the requirements are different. You need endurance and speed, but also the ability to operate as part of a network to monitor a large area and track a sonar contact over time,” notes Rear Admiral (2S) Xavier Baudouard, Director of Strategy, Marketing and Product Policy within Thales’ Underwater Systems business line.
The experience gained with Pathmaster, a drone-based mine countermeasures system supplied to the French and British navies as part of the MMCM programme (Maritime Mine Counter Measures, known in France as SLAMF, or Système de Lutte Anti-Mines Futur), provides a solid foundation. However, ASW represents a further step, requiring specific advances in autonomy, decision-making and acoustics, particularly for communications with underwater drones.
Sonars designed for drones
Acoustic detection continues to play a key role in ASW. Thales offers a range of sonars suitable for all types of platforms, from submarines to surface vessels, as well as helicopters and maritime patrol aircraft (MPA). The FLASH dipping sonar – an active sonar system lowered into the water from a hovering helicopter – and the variable-depth active sonars in the CAPTAS range, which equip surface vessels, are among the most widely deployed systems in the world. More than 500 FLASH sonars are in service with 18 navies, including the French and U.S. navies. In 2025, Thales celebrated the order for the 100th CAPTAS, which has been adopted by 19 navies worldwide.
Thales is now seeking to apply this expertise to autonomous platforms, with sensors natively adapted to their operational characteristics. Blue Sentry, which is being unveiled at the show, illustrates this development. This passive sonar, featuring a small-diameter linear towed array, is designed specifically for uncrewed surface and underwater vehicles (USVs/UUVs).
Optimised for the payload, power and endurance constraints specific to autonomous systems, Blue Sentry provides USVs and UUVs with a discreet and persistent detection capability. This approach maximises mission duration while broadening the scope of ASW operations that can be carried out by uncrewed platforms. Unlike active sonar, which emits an acoustic wave to locate a contact and determine its distance, passive sonar listens for and analyses sounds in the water.
Passive sonar allows for stealth whilst providing information on the contact’s azimuth and its possible identity through the analysis of its acoustic signature. However, it does not provide an instantaneous reading of the contact’s distance and requires time to obtain a sufficiently accurate bearing, speed and range to enable an attack.
“Passive sonar allows us to analyse the submarine’s acoustic signature while remaining undetected, but without any immediate indication of distance. Active sonar, on the other hand, provides essential information on the contact’s position, but immediately alerts the submarine, which can react before being detected. It remains an effective means of countering modern, highly stealthy submarines and posing a latent threat to any type of underwater vessel,” Xavier Baudouard observes. The two technologies are therefore complementary.
Furthermore, Blue Sentry has the capability to receive and process sonar emissions, particularly those from the CAPTAS range. It can therefore be used within a multistatic network activated either by a frigate, a craft of opportunity (such as a supply ship) or a drone equipped with an active sonar transmitter. This allows the advantages of active sonar to be combined with those of passive sonar, thereby covering a larger area thanks to the increased number of receivers.
Another development, the Light Dipping Sonar (LDS), is designed specifically for rotary-wing UAVs. “We are gradually moving from adapting existing products to designing sonars specifically engineered for drone platforms,” explains the former commander of the French Naval Action Force (FAN). This approach also applies to larger surface platforms. Thales is working to make the CAPTAS family more modular, so that it can be installed on ships with reduced crews or on large autonomous platforms.
Towards distributed ASW
The effectiveness of sensors also depends on the transmission of the information collected. Frigates, helicopters, USVs, UAVs and AUVs must be able to contribute to the same tactical situation. “Anti-submarine warfare is a highly integrated field: collaborative combat relies on the ability to network the various sensors and utilise their data within a single system, even though communications with UUVs remain difficult,” Xavier Baudouard observes.
This is precisely the role of M-Cube: this mission management system, originally developed for mine warfare and adapted for ASW, can plan missions, coordinate assets and reorient missions based on the data obtained. This is particularly important for UUVs, with which communications remain difficult, and which can process some of the data on board so as to transmit only essential information back to shore or to surface units, thereby reducing the bandwidth required for the communications network.
“The drone must gradually become capable of analysing its environment, detecting relevant contacts and adapting its mission,” Xavier Baudouard remarks. However, this involves developing autonomous capabilities for detection, classification and track generation, to enable the drone to understand the tactical underwater situation around it, as well as autonomous capabilities for reconfiguring its mission, so that it can track a target without necessarily waiting for orders from a unit on shore or above the surface. AI plays a crucial role in processing this vast amount of data. Designed for critical systems, this AI is being developed with the support of CortAIx, Thales’s AI accelerator.
Tests moving to operational scale
These capabilities are now being put to the test in the field. During the REPMUS exercise, dedicated to testing autonomous maritime systems, Thales tested UAVs capable of deploying acoustic buoys and USVs for underwater detection. In 2026, Dynamic Manta, a NATO ASW exercise, enabled this work to continue using a USV equipped with a prototype of the LDS. The next step is to validate the entire chain: the drone, sonar, mission system and operator must function as a coherent whole.
- Linda Verhaeghe
