DSEI 2025: SAMDIS 600 synthetic aperture sonar completes integration with REMUS 620 UUV

A REMUS 620 UUV, seen as HII and Thales announced integration of the SAMDIS 600 synthetic aperture sonar in September 2025. (Thales)

HII's Mission Technologies division and Thales have concluded integration and field exercises of the Thales SAMDIS 600 multi-aspect synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) sensor with HII's REMUS 620 medium unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV).

Integration and testing, completed at the end of August, demonstrated the compatibility of the SAMDIS 600 multi-aspect SAS with the REMUS 620 vehicle, the two companies said in releases at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2025 exhibition held in London from 9 to 12 September.

Developed by Thales France, SAMDIS (Synthetic Aperture Mine Detection Imaging Sonar) is a high-frequency, high-resolution SAS payload designed specifically to perform mine detection, classification, and localisation with high confidence regardless of environmental conditions. SAMDIS employs three separate beams – projecting at +30°, broadside, and -30° – to create a multiview sonar picture. According to Thales, the image quality achieved from three views in a single pass increases probability of detection and classification, and minimises the probability of false classification.

SAMDIS 600 is an instantiation of the second-generation SAMDIS NG product line (the suffix 600 indicating the payload depth rating). Retaining the full performance of the original sonar but scaled to meet the size, weight, and power constraints of medium-size UUVs, SAMDIS NG reduces volume by half, reduces power consumption by a factor of three, and reduces the computing overhead by adopting new graphics processing unit-based SAS processing.

Integration of SAMDIS 600 expands the mine-countermeasures (MCM) SAS payload options available with REMUS 620. To date, HII has offered Kraken Robotics' Miniature Synthetic Aperture Sonar (MINSAS) 60 or MINSAS 120 payloads – both instantiations of Kraken's Aquapix interferometric SAS product family – as standard.