Thales AI developments enhance operational performance of maritime mine countermeasures

04/11/2024

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At the Euronaval exhibition at Paris Nord Villepinte from 4-7 November, Thales is showcasing recent advances in mine countermeasures with a presentation of its latest AI technologies implemented in the Pathmaster solution.

AI has a key role to play in the detection, classification, identification and neutralisation of maritime mines. With Thaless Mi-Map sonar analysis application, sonar data can be processed up to four times faster than with conventional tools, making it possible to locate underwater mines with greater precision than ever before.

Thaless Pathmaster solution draws on the latest research by cortAIx, the Groups accelerator for trusted, cybersafe AI.

@Thales At Euronaval (4-7 November 2024), Thales is showcasing recent advances in artificial intelligence with a presentation of its Pathmaster solution, which uses AI to detect and classify maritime mines with unprecedented precision for neutralisation by autonomous underwater vehicles.

Maritime mines at any depth represent a low-cost, persistent threat to naval operations and compromise the safety of maritime shipping, which accounts for 90% of international trade. According to the latest estimates, several million maritime mines are now deployed worldwide, with particularly high densities in areas affected by major military conflicts or geopolitical tensions. As well as damaging marine ecosystems, they create a significant financial burden because of the need to re-route ships and protect shipping lanes.

With the proliferation and growing sophistication of maritime mines, advanced data gathering and analytics capabilities have an increasingly important role to play in countering this global threat. Autonomous mine countermeasures systems implementing artificial intelligence algorithms are now capable of processing data more efficiently and at lower cost than ever before while protecting human operators from the dangers of maritime minefields. Thaless trusted AI augments the capabilities of its Pathmaster solution to significantly improve sonar data analysis and provide operators with valuable decision support during critical phases of their missions, said Gwendoline Blandin-Roger, Vice President, Underwater Systems, Thales.

Pathmaster uses AI to support the key tasks of mine detection and classification, while the Mi-Map application enables operators to analyse high-resolution sonar data covering hundreds of square kilometres, either in real time or after the mission, with greater efficiency than ever before. AI algorithms analyse sonar images to detect and classify potential mines much more accurately and over significantly larger areas. Thaless Mi-Map solution is up to four times faster than conventional sonar data analysis tools as well as reducing the cognitive load on operators.

Thaless AI-augmented Pathmaster system has been proven in comprehensive sea trials conducted for the Franco-British MMCM programme and was certified in 2024 to the International Maritime Organizations degree 3 autonomy by the Naval Authority Group within the UK MoDs Defence, Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation.

AI at Thales

Thales is a major player in trusted, cybersafe, transparent, explainable and ethical AI for armed forces, aircraft manufacturers and critical infrastructure providers. The Group employs over 600 engineers specialising in AI and around 100 doctoral candidates are conducting their AI research with Thales. Organised within Thales's AI accelerator for research (AI Lab), systems, including decision support systems, (AI Factory) and sensors, including sonar, radar, radios and optronics, (AI Sensors), these experts are helping to incorporate AI into over 100 of Thales's products and services. Thales's AI capabilities draw on the most advanced sensor and system technologies to address the full spectrum of user requirements in the defence, aviation, space, cybersecurity and digital identity industries. Trusted AI is designed to meet the specific security and sovereignty needs of Thales's customers. It brings greater efficiency to data analysis and decision support and speeds up the detection, identification and classification of objects of interest and target scenes, while taking account of specific constraints such as cybersecurity, embeddability and frugality in critical environments.

In 2023, the Group was Europe's top patent applicant in the field of AI for mission-critical systems. Also in 2023, the Groups Friendly Hacker Unit demonstrated its credentials at the CAID challenge (Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Defence) organised by the French defence procurement agency (DGA), which involved finding AI training data even when it had been deleted from the system to preserve confidentiality.

About Thales

Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global technology leader serving the Defence & Security, Aerospace & Space and Cybersecurity & Digital Identity markets.

The Group develops products and solutions that help make the world safer, greener and more inclusive.

Thales invests close to 4 billion a year in Research & Development, particularly in key areas such as AI, cybersecurity, quantum technologies, cloud technologies and 6G.

Thales has 81,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2023, the Group generated sales of 18.4 billion.

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