UK and France are teaming with European defense contractors Thales and BAE to develop a fully automated minesweeping system that keeps sailors out of harm's way. The Thales-BAE Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MMCM), due for preliminary testing in about two years, is actually more like a fleet.
The system revolves around an unmanned surface vessel towing a Synthetic Aperture Sonar array to locate mines. This surface ship, upon finding a mine, will then deploy an autonomous underwater drone (like, say, the SeaFox UUV) which will then neutralize the threat, typically by affixing sand detonating an explosive charge to the side of the mine.
Source: Popular Science
