Other features: The A18-M is an autonomous underwater vehicle designed for naval mine countermeasures, featuring a total weight of approximately 442 to 450 kg depending on installed modules. Powered by a fully electric propulsion system with a 10.9 kWh battery section, it operates at depths down to 300 meters. The vehicle’s payload features an advanced sonar suite centered around Exail’s proprietary UMISAS interferometric synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) providing ultra-high 3×3 cm image resolution, complemented by CTD sensors and optional multibeam echosounders or video cameras. This enables the integration of built-in Automatic Target Detection and Recognition (ATD/ATR) algorithms for real-time hazard classification. For precise positioning, the A18-M utilizes an inertial navigation system (INS), Doppler velocity log (DVL), and USBL acoustic systems like GAPS. As a core component of the UMIS unmanned mine countermeasures system, it can be deployed from surface vessels, uncrewed surface vehicles such as the Inspector 125, or unpaved shores using launch-and-recovery systems (LARS).
