Maritime security

The Navy wants to know if a drone can detect nautical mines

If the Navy wants to detect nautical mines from the sky, the job often requires an MH-60 helicopter and an on-board countermeasure system.
This arrangement lets operators learn about these mines and do so from a safe distance. Now the service wants something more nimble.
One solution could be a small quadcopter sporting an ultra-sensitive magnetometer sensor system. This setup would allow the instrument to detect mines and then relay the information almost immediately to a handheld Android device.
While the Navy hasn’t committed to a platform yet, early trials have involved the Physical Sciences Instant Eye, which weighs less than five pounds and sports a diminutive 12-inch wingspan.
Existing solutions “tend to be large, expensive, or relatively slow,” said Dr. Rosemarie Oelrich, a scientist at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division Combatant Craft Division. “We are looking for a quick exploratory search capability.”
Oelrich and her colleagues are testing what’s formally known as a Mine Warfare Rapid Assessment Capability (MIW RAC) system, a product of the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) TechSolutions program.