Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Royal Navy trial high-tech autonomous mine hunting capability, published on 10 December 2024, how many trials have taken place as part of the Apollo Maritime Counter Measure programme since 10 December 2024.

The Apollo Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MMCM) platform is the UK concept demonstrator for the Mine Hunting Capability (MHC) Programme.

During the period 2021- 2025, the Royal Navy conducted a series of trials and evaluation work with the platform through the Maritime Autonomous Systems Trials Team (MASTT). No further trials have been carried out since as the vessel has been returned to the manufacturer for maintenance and critical system updates as part of its capability development phase, with a planned return to the fleet during 2026.

The MMCM Project is an Anglo-French collaboration under the Lancaster House agreement. The project will deliver four vessels to the Royal Navy, additional MMCM vessels have been ordered as part of the MMCM joint project.