The Ministry of Defence is set to award a contract to maintain the Royal Navy’s primary mine disposal system, according to a transparency notice published on 5 June 2026, the UK Defence Journal understands.
The notice, issued by the Sonar and Maritime Sensors Project Team within Defence Equipment and Support, sets out the intention to place a two-year contract worth an estimated £12 million with TKMS Atlas UK Limited for the in-service support of the Seafox Mine Disposal System. The contract would run from January 2027 to the end of December 2028, with signature expected no earlier than 31 December 2026.
The award is being made directly, without a competition, on technical grounds, and the notice explains why no other supplier is considered able to do the work. TKMS Atlas, it states, is licensed on an exclusive basis by its parent company, the original manufacturer and design authority of the system, to access the system’s technical information, drawings and data.
Without that documentation, the notice says, it would not be possible to meet the required technical and safety standards, “including ensuring that the System functions and is integrated effectively and safely with other systems installed on the ships”. To contract another supplier, it argues, “would introduce an unacceptable level of technical, safety and security risk to the maintenance of a vital Royal Navy capability”, concluding that there is “no reasonable alternative”.
Seafox is a remotely operated underwater vehicle used in mine countermeasures, deployed from a ship to locate, identify and dispose of sea mines, a task that keeps the crew and the parent vessel at a safer distance from the explosive threat. The system has been a central part of the Royal Navy’s mine countermeasures capability aboard the Hunt and Sandown class vessels, which have long carried out the painstaking work of clearing mines from shipping lanes and approaches.
