BeeX shows ALPHA mine-killing drone in UK after U.S. Navy win

Singapore-based BeeX used its ALPHA underwater drone to place explosive charges on a moored sea mine and a swinging steel target and then destroy both during a closed-door mine countermeasures demonstration in the United Kingdom, the company said on Oct. 27.

The one-day event, held on Sept. 17 and hosted by British defense consultancy Copper Turtle, brought together representatives of the UK Ministry of Defence, the Royal Navy, industry and academia. BeeX worked alongside three other firms: Alford Technologies, which supplied the charges, Blueprint Subsea, which supplied the acoustic firing system, and ELWAVE, which supplied an electric sensor for finding mine-like objects.

ALPHA is a hovering autonomous underwater vehicle, a drone that can stop and hold its position in the water instead of cruising past a target like a torpedo-shaped survey vehicle. That ability to hover is what let it do the hands-on part of mine clearance during the demonstration. Operating semi-autonomously from a laptop, ALPHA approached each target, held station close to it, and used its sonar and cameras to inspect and identify it.

It then attached Alford’s Remote EOD Delivery System neutralizers, confirmed the charge was ready, backed away and fired. The first target was a moored mine, the kind anchored to the seabed and floating at a set depth below the surface. The second was a steel plate hung from a buoy, chosen to make the job harder because it rotated unpredictably in the water. BeeX said ALPHA still placed the charge accurately on the moving plate. After each detonation, the drone used its sonar and cameras to check the damage and confirm the targets had been neutralized.

Blueprint Subsea’s through-water fire set sent the detonation command acoustically, through the water, so no cable had to run to the charge. The event also included the successful detonation of an Alford magnetic charge. Alford says its system is operational to a depth of 950 m (3,117 feet) and can produce either a full explosion or a smaller, controlled effect against underwater explosive ordnance.

ELWAVE’s EPULSE sensor demonstrated the search end of the process. It uses electric sensing to detect objects regardless of water visibility or murkiness and can find objects that are exposed, buried or partly buried in the seabed.

BeeX also showed how the drone can be reprogrammed from far away. Its engineers in Singapore accessed ALPHA over Starlink during the event and changed its mission settings remotely. The company says the same connection could eventually let navies send firing commands from anywhere, keeping personnel out of the danger area.

The UK demonstration follows a U.S. win for BeeX. On Oct. 1, the U.S. Navy and the Defense Innovation Unit named BeeX one of three winners of the Mine Countermeasure Modernization Prize Challenge, alongside BlackSea Technologies and Vatn Systems. The challenge drew 80 submissions, and 11 companies were chosen to compete across near-surface mine neutralization, bottom mine detection and bottom mine neutralization. The U.S. Navy said the winning systems will be integrated into the fleet’s autonomous mine countermeasure kits.

Mine clearance has moved up the agenda for both navies this year. The U.S. Navy used underwater drones to help clear Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, while the Royal Navy fitted the support ship RFA Lyme Bay in Gibraltar to act as a mothership for uncrewed mine-hunting systems. Other companies are also bringing new drones to the field, including French firm SEABER, which launched its RAVEN mine-hunting drone this week.

BeeX was spun out of the National University of Singapore in 2018, and in October 2025 Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency awarded it a contract to supply its hovering drones to the Singapore Ministry of Defence. The company says ALPHA can operate untethered, so several units can be deployed at once, and can be launched from autonomous surface vessels.