Rheinmetall Defence Australia, in cooperation with the Australian Supashock, has presented a concept for a seaborne platform-agnostic smart sea mine delivery system dubbed the Mine Rail Deployment System (MRDS) at Indopacific 2023. 

In a relevant press release, the company announced the intention to design, test, and manufacture the new system at Supashock’s facility in Adelaide.

MRDS features a rack fixed to the platform chosen, deploying its payload directly without the need for an appliance basket discarded into the sea. The concept also includes a high degree of automation, with a single operator required to control operations, as displayed by a model shown by Rheinmetall at this year’s Indopacific event. 

According to the company, the said system can be integrated as a containerized solution swappable between platforms and aid in protecting the system against visual surveillance including satellite surveillance. 

To that effect, Rheinmetall Australia is cooperating with Huntington Ingalls Industries Australia (HII) to perform related integration work.

Development of MRDS started approximately two months ago and it seeks to revolutionize payload deployment, reduce deck footprint, and increase payload replenishment efficiency. The system is also scalable and can be adapted so as to be integrated into a range of different seacraft.

Apart from these, the system offers enhanced safety features such as jettison capability, improved ergonomics, and a weather shelter protecting the crew, while it disguises deck activity during transport or operations.

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