As part of the Interflex Maritime training programme in the UK, Ukrainian sailors practised destroying sea mines using the SeaFox unmanned underwater vehicle. This was reported by Forces News.
SeaFox is a remotely operated unmanned underwater vehicle designed to detect, identify and destroy sea mines. It was developed by the German company ATLAS ELEKTRONIK, which is part of the TKMS group. It is equipped with cameras and sonar, enabling crews to survey the seabed, locate suspicious objects and identify mines without directly sending divers into a hazardous area. Control is carried out via a fibre-optic cable.
SeaFox has a reconnaissance and a training version, which can be recovered and reused, as well as the combat SeaFox C version, fitted with a shaped charge to destroy a mine. According to the manufacturer, the vehicle can operate at depths of up to 300 metres. It is approximately 1.3 metres long and weighs about 43 kg.
During the training, Ukrainian crews practised the sequential use of three SeaFox variants. First, they launch the reconnaissance vehicle with fibre-optic control, cameras and sonar. It scans the seabed and helps locate the mine. In the training scenario, the mine is represented by a barrel-sized dummy placed on the seabed.
After detecting the object, the sailors use the telemetry version of SeaFox to confirm its position and rehearse the neutralisation procedure. At the final stage, they deploy the combat vehicle, Charlie. It is fitted with an explosive charge equivalent to roughly 1.5 kg of TNT. Operators control it remotely from the ship’s operations room and detonate it next to the mine.
Interflex Maritime is intended as preparation for future demining of the Black Sea after the war ends. Five Ukrainian mine countermeasures vessels, currently based in British waters, took part in the training. They include Cherkasy and Chernihiv, former Royal Navy Sandown-class minehunters, and three Alkmaar-class vessels transferred by the Netherlands and Belgium. The ships remain in British waters because Turkey is applying restrictions under the Montreux Convention, which do not allow warships of states at war to pass through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits.