Fire Scout Drone on Course to Achieve Breakthroughs in Locating Enemy Mines

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

New sensing and computer-processing technologies are expected to generate unprecedented breakthroughs for the mine-hunting Fire Scout Navy drone seeking to find enemy mines, by organizing incoming sensor information and ensuring accurate identification with new levels of speed.

The Navy is prototyping and preparing new tests of its “pod” which attaches underneath the Fire Scout drone to not only help find mines by analyzing returns from EO/IR cameras, but also network details related to the mine countermeasures effort in real-time to human decision-makers.

Single System Multi-Mission Airborne Mine Detection (SMAMD)

The Navy’s The Single System Multi-Mission Airborne Mine Detection (SMAMD) program uses an “airborne sensor suite that will have the ability to have real-time onboard processing coupled with low false alarm rates will enable the warfighter to respond swiftly to detected threats,” a write up from NAVAIR, Naval Air Systems Command states.

Faster processing at the point of collection is an extremely impactful technological breakthrough for mine-hunting missions and ISR overall as, instead of needing to return and manually upload or present threat information for analysis, AI-enabled computer data processing can take place at the point of collection to expedite the ISR and decision-making progress exponentially.

“Current MCM technologies require post-mission analysis that lengthens the threat detection and mitigation timeline,” the Navy essay writes. Interestingly, the Navy report explains that the SMAMD, once operational, will be the first MCM flown from the Fire Scout and also be the largest payload it has carried.

Data processing at the point of collection massively improves identification and information transfer operations and also likely helps facilitate multi-domain connectivity. Perhaps mine-hunting Fire Scouts could quickly send mine-field specifics to surface ships, helicopters and drones capable of responding and destroying mines. It would not be surprising if the onboard computer processing were AI enabled. 

In this case, detailed incoming sensor data could be gathered, organized and processed so that moments of relevance to human decision-makers were identified and instantly transmitted.