Airborne Laser Mine Detection System for South Korea

Northrop Grumman, October 16, 2023 - MELBOURNE, Florida – Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a contract by Korea Aerospace Industries, Ltd. (KAI) to provide Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) solutions and technical support for the Engineering, Manufacturing and Design (EMD) phase of the Republic of Korea’s Korean Mine Countermeasures Helicopter (KMCH) program.

The EMD phase is expected to be completed in 2027.

Janice Zilch, vice president, multi-domain command and control (MDC2) programs, Northrop Grumman said “Our strategic partnership with KAI to bring ALMDS technology to the KMCH program builds on our decades of commitment to deliver advanced solutions that support the Republic of Korea's Ministry of National Defense”

“The mission of ALMDS is to detect, classify and localize floating and near-surface moored mines rapidly. KAI is convinced that the ALMDS integration will make a significant improvement to the Republic of Korea’s Navy mine detection capabilities. The program will also enhance our strategic partnership with Northrop Grumman in the defense domain,” said Chang-heon Han, executive vice president, rotary wing division, Korea Aerospace Industries.

ALMDS is capable of untethered day or night operations, which allow it to attain high area search rates. ALMDS also provides accurate target geo-location to support follow-on neutralization of the detected mines.

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ALMDS

The Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) uses pulsed laser light and streak tube receivers housed in an external equipment pod to image the entire near-surface volume potentially containing mines. ALMDS is capable of day or night operations without stopping to stream out or recover equipment and without towing any equipment in the water.

With untethered operations, it can attain high area search rates. This design uses the forward motion of the aircraft to generate image data negating the requirement for complex scanning mechanisms and ensuring high system reliability. ALMDS also provides accurate target geo-location to support follow on neutralization of the detected mines.

Used by the US Navy, the ALMDS pod is mechanically attached to the MH-60S helicopter with a standard Bomb Rack Unit 14 (BRU-14) mount and electrically via a primary and auxiliary umbilical cable to the operator console. Data is stored on a mass memory unit for post mission analysis. The operator's consol is common to all MH-60S AMCM systems.