Euronews joined the French minehunting ship Le Capricorne for a day during the Ariadne 2025 exercise in Greece.
An underwater minehunting exercise was this week taking place off the coast of Crete, in Greece, involving specialised military teams from Greece, France, Romania, Belgium and the US.
Commandant Stéphane Méline, of the French minehunting ship Le Capricorne, told Euronews that the aim of the multinational Anti-Mine Warfare Exercise “is to work on interoperability with allied navies”.
The teams, complete with mine clearance divers and autonomous drones, scoured the seabed to test their ability to spot mines while under pressure from enemies.
“The scenario is a country, Minoas Land, which is prosperous, has a terrorist faction that would have mined the areas. And so the aim of our taskgroup is to intervene on a UN resolution to guarantee the freedom of movement of maritime zones in Minoas Land’s territorial waters, Commandant Méline said.
Underwater mine clearing is nowadays primarily used to get rid of mines or unexploded bombs that were used in various conflicts since WWI – several hundred mines or unexploded bombs are cleared along the French coast every year – or to secure theatres of operations before the deployment of other military vessels.
Next-generation naval drones scheduled to come online in the coming years should revolutionise the process as they will replace the need for demagnetised ships like the Capricorne to navigate over underwater minefields, which puts dozens of sailors’ lives at risk.
The French military is currently testing such a drone.
