Thales has been awarded a contract by Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) in the United Kingdom to develop the next generation of portable autonomous command centres for the Royal Navy's mine countermeasures capability. In Thales' press release, it is stated that the first phase involves 10 million British pounds and that the programme could encompass up to 100 million British pounds.
The contract pertains to the design, development, and delivery of portable autonomous command centres under the Autonomous Remote Command Centre (RCC) framework, according to Thales. The press release states that the solution will support the integration of multiple unmanned systems, both above and below the water surface, and that Thales will provide hardware, software, training, and technical advice in collaboration with a British supply chain.
Thales indicates that the M-Cube Mission Management System will be central to the command centres and that Mi-Map will be used for planning and evaluation. The press release states that Mi-Map includes features for automatic target recognition with AI and that AI support is being developed with cortAIx, described in the source as Thales' AI accelerator. Thales states in the same source that cortAIx comprises 800 AI experts within the group.
The press release states that Thales will initially deliver two containerised solutions to integrate platforms, systems, and subsystems. The source indicates that the solution will enable Royal Navy personnel to coordinate a fleet of unmanned and autonomous systems.