French ECA Group announced it has won a contract worth more than 20 million euros for the modernization of three Alkmaar mine countermeasures vessels belonging to the Latvian Naval Forces.
The vessels were acquired from the Royal Netherlands Navy in 2006. These vessels require a modernization of their mine hunting system, the company said in a release September 28.
Under this contract, ECA Group will replace the conventional detection system based on a hull sonar for mines with a smaller unmanned system consisting of the underwater drones AUV A18-M for detection and underwater robots Seascan MK2 and K-STER C for identification and clearance of the mines. The Latvian Naval Forces will acquire a compacte version of the UMIS system.
Latvia; Navy to modernize mine countermeasure fleet