The Navy selected three defense companies as prize winners of a challenge to advance mine countermeasure technology capable of destroying mine threats from a safe distance.
The service’s Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Robotic and Autonomous Systems and Defense Innovation Unit selected BeeX, BlackSea Technologies and Vatn Systems after they successfully completed the Mine Countermeasure Modernization Prize Challenge, according to a recent release.
“Through the partnership with DIU, in less than four months we were able to quickly move from open call to on-water testing, to contracting options and initial operational planning,” George Saroch, DRPM RAS program manager for mine warfare, said in the announcement.
DIU launched the competition on May 29, offering $200,000 to companies selected to participate and up to $3 million to the winning company.
Out of 80 applicants, only 11 companies were chosen to compete.
The competition asked companies to tackle near-surface mine neutralization, bottom mine detection and bottom mine neutralization.
Those that were awarded the prize proved that their technology was capable of locating, identifying and destroying underwater mine threats, the Navy said.
The Navy has faced mine warfare during the Iran war, with Iran placing sea mines along the Strait of Hormuz.
The suite of options the service has to address the threat, however, remains limited.
Four Avenger-class minesweepers were decommissioned in 2025 before the war, leaving only four left in the fleet, all of which are stationed in Sasebo, Japan.
The Navy also has three Independence-class littoral combat ships, previously stationed in Bahrain, that each come equipped with a mine countermeasures mission package that employs a combination of helicopters, sonar, acoustic and electromagnetic generators and autonomous vessels to minesweep and minehunt.
But several retired U.S. Navy captains who deployed on minesweepers told Military Times in March that those ships were not as effective as the minesweepers due to technological issues.
The Pentagon’s weapons testing office DOT&E found that pieces of the mine countermeasures technology on the LCS with the MCM package were “not operationally suitable” and could “not support sustained mine sweeping operations.”
Riley Ceder is a Navy reporter at Military Times, where he covers issues directly affecting service members and their families, as well as breaking news.