Sirius
French Navy MMCM uncrewed surface vessel; first deployed alongside UK's Ariadne aboard RFA Lyme Bay at Toulon, June 2026.
Sirius, the French Navy's mine-hunting drone, reached the Middle East aboard RFA Lyme Bay on 23 June 2026, but a 7 July tanker attack stalled Omani authorisation before it could clear any of roughly 80 Iranian mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
Last refreshed: 24 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Has the French Navy's Sirius drone and Britain's Ariadne actually cleared any mines together yet?
Timeline for Sirius
Mentioned in: Navy retires HMS Chiddingfold at 42
Autonomous Systems: Land & SeaMentioned in: Oman clears mine mission, then a stall
Autonomous Systems: Land & SeaMentioned in: Thales buys Exail for EUR 3.9 billion
Autonomous Systems: Land & SeaEmbarked alongside Ariadne in Lyme Bay well-dock on arrival in theatre
Autonomous Systems: Land & Sea: Allied robot minehunters reach the GulfEmbarked aboard RFA Lyme Bay at Toulon for first joint Anglo-French autonomous MCM integration at sea
Autonomous Systems: Land & Sea: Lyme Bay embarks France's mine-hunting droneBackground
Sirius is the French Navy's uncrewed mine-countermeasures surface vessel, developed under the Anglo-French Maritime Mine Countermeasures programme that has run since 2015 and built around Thales's SAMDIS sonar. It is entirely distinct from other entities named Sirius, including Sirius XM, various spacecraft and historical vessels.
Its British counterpart is the Royal Navy's RNMB Ariadne, developed under the same bilateral framework with Thales as the shared sensor supplier. The two systems are designed to operate together, an arrangement that gives either navy an export reference for the combined toolkit when a third country asks for autonomous mine-hunting capability.
Sirius and Ariadne were designed from the outset to a common interface standard so either navy's support ship, sonar operators and neutraliser drones can work with both hulls interchangeably, the arrangement that let the two vessels sail the Gulf mission from a single Lyme Bay deck.
Sirius awaits its live mine-clearance order
Sirius was embarked aboard RFA Lyme Bay at Toulon in early June 2026 alongside the Royal Navy's Ariadne, the first time either navy had run two allied robot minehunters from one ship, and reached the Middle East on 23 June escorted by HMS Dragon and two German mine-countermeasures vessels.
Paris and London secured Omani clearance in early July to remove roughly 80 Iranian mines from the southern Hormuz channel, the operation Sirius had sailed from Toulon and been escorted into the Gulf for. A 7 July tanker attack intervened first, so her own clearance run never started; she remains alongside Ariadne in the Lyme Bay package, integrated but unused.
What is France's Sirius mine-hunting drone?
What happened at Toulon with France's mine-hunting drone in June 2026?
Is the French Sirius drone the same as the satellite radio company?
How does the Anglo-French MMCM programme split work between the two navies?
Has France's Sirius drone cleared any mines in the Strait of Hormuz yet?
