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Navies are studying how to detect, track and neutralize hostile unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), but public sources do not identify a complete operational counter-UUV system or publish its detection range or effectiveness. NATO’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) says its 2025 Counter-UxV project examined sensors and soft- and hard-kill technologies for maritime unmanned vehicles. Public Navy descriptions of sonar-equipped mine-hunting vehicles offer examples of unmanned sensing and human review, but they do not establish that those systems detect hostile UUVs.
What is publicly known about countering underwater drones?
NATO CMRE’s 2025 annual report is the clearest direct public evidence in the cited material. Its Counter-UxV project examined potential measures against maritime unmanned surface and underwater vehicles, with a focus on protecting warships and critical maritime infrastructure. CMRE says the work investigated current and near-future sensors for tactically relevant detection and tracking, as well as soft- and hard-kill technologies.
That confirms the problem is an active research area; it does not reveal a fielded recipe. The public account names no sensor system or deployment configuration and gives no detection range, probability of detection, false-alarm rate, neutralization performance, or list of systems in service. Those specifics cannot be inferred from the fact that a technology is being studied.
At a high level, the challenge has several stages: notice a possible contact, maintain track, decide what it is and whether it presents a threat, then determine whether and how to respond. CMRE’s public summary supports that broad detection-to-neutralization framing, but it does not disclose individual navies’ procedures or the tactics they would use.
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What mine-hunting vehicles show—and what they do not
Mine countermeasures provide concrete public examples of unmanned underwater sensing. They are useful for understanding how sensors, analysis and human decisions can fit together, but they address a different task: finding mines, not defending against a hostile vehicle.
Littoral Combat Ship mine-countermeasure package
The U.S. Navy’s description of its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Mine Countermeasures Mission Package says it uses aviation assets and unmanned surface and underwater vehicles equipped with sensors and systems to detect, localize and neutralize mines in littoral areas. The package is designed to let the LCS operate outside the mine threat area. This is evidence of remote mine-warfare operations, not proof that the package can find or stop an opposing UUV.
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Multiple sonar views and later identification
The Navy says the MCM Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MCM USV) carries the AN/AQS-20C, which uses side-looking, gap-filler and forward-looking sonar arrays to detect and classify bottom mines, close-tethered moored mines and volume-moored mines. An electro-optic identification device supplies imagery to aid identification of bottom mines. The example shows why a system may combine different sensor views and follow sonar detection with another means of examining a contact. The Navy does not describe the AN/AQS-20C as a hostile-UUV detector.
Analysis and human review
In a 2021 account of an expeditionary mine-countermeasure certification exercise, the Navy said Mk 18 UUVs located potential mine shapes. A five-person post-mission analysis cell reviewed the sonar data and created a mine-like contact listing for the command-and-control element. Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) personnel then handled identification and any rendering safe, exploitation or neutralization. This illustrates an important distinction: an unmanned vehicle can collect data, but trained people and command processes still have roles in interpreting contacts and deciding what to do. The account concerns mine response, not counter-UUV operations.
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A dated mine-hunting example
A 2016 Navy report on an international mine-countermeasures exercise described mine-hunting sonar used to map the seafloor and classify anomalies as mine-like. It also said SeaFox used sonar, cameras, fiber optics and searchlights to give teams visual information about the ocean floor. This is a historical example of mine-hunting technology, not evidence of a present-day hostile-drone defense capability.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why underwater detection is not just a sensor question
A sensor’s name alone cannot tell a reader how well a system would work against an underwater vehicle. Relevant factors include the acoustic conditions in the area, the vehicle’s depth, speed and endurance, whether sensing is active or passive, the quality of navigation and communications, how contacts are classified, and how a response is reviewed and authorized. The public sources do not provide quantitative head-to-head data for counter-UUV systems, so these are comparison questions rather than a basis for ranking named systems.
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The engineering constraints are longstanding. A 2000 Naval Research Advisory Committee assessment identified power supplies and acoustic and non-acoustic communications as technologies that limit unmanned-vehicle utility, and emphasized the need for precise underwater navigation and communication. It specifically described multipath transmission problems below 40 feet as limiting reliability to an unacceptable degree in that report’s assessment. Because this is a historical finding, it should not be treated as a current universal depth limit or a specification for every modern vehicle.
The Office of Naval Research describes work on sound propagation and scattering, signal processing, and networked UUV sensor applications in areas including anti-submarine warfare, mine countermeasures and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. This helps explain why underwater acoustics and data processing matter, but it does not supply a counter-UUV detection range.
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How to read public claims about underwater-drone defense
| Claim or example | What the cited public material establishes | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| NATO CMRE Counter-UxV project, described in its 2025 annual report | Research examined sensors for detecting and tracking maritime unmanned vehicles, including UUVs, and soft- and hard-kill technologies. | Named systems, operational deployment, detection ranges, effectiveness or individual navy fielding. |
| U.S. Navy mine-countermeasure vehicles and sensors | Unmanned platforms can collect sonar and other sensor data to find and classify mine-like contacts, with analysis and human review in the workflow. | That the same systems are intended or capable of detecting hostile UUVs. |
| Naval Research Advisory Committee assessment, 2000 | A historical account of power, navigation and communications constraints, including a stated concern about underwater multipath transmission. | A current universal performance limit for all UUVs or communications systems. |
For readers asking how navies track or stop an underwater drone, the defensible public answer is therefore limited: detection, tracking and neutralization are being studied, while the cited public summary leaves the systems and their performance unspecified. Mine-hunting examples can clarify the broad sensing and review process, but they should not be presented as proof of an operational counter-UUV capability.
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