Specialist Article REPMUS 2026
Mine countermeasures are once again driving innovation in modern naval warfare.
Early morning in Sesimbra, Portugal. In a white tent at the fishing harbour, experts from WTD 71 and industry representatives gather for the Daily War Council. The scenario: hostile naval mines have been laid off the Portuguese coast, and a critical Q-route towards Setúbal must be cleared. Hours later, dozens of autonomous underwater, surface, and aerial systems are at sea.
This is REPMUS 2026, NATO’s Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping using Maritime Uncrewed Systems. For north.io, it was a test of whether our Ocean Data Platform can turn raw sensor data into information a naval staff can act on.
REPMUS 2026 at a Glance
- 240+ participants from 13 nations
- 85 minehunting and harbour protection assets: 6 aerial, 11 surface and 68 underwater systems
- 36 Task Elements
- ~300 MCM taskings in total, with fewer than 30 cancelled for technical reasons
First the Language, Then the Software
Weeks before Sesimbra, much of the north.io team spent a full day at the 3rd Minesweeper Squadron in Kiel. They covered mine warfare fundamentals, specialist terminology and APP-11 reporting formats. The goal was not to turn developers into mine warfare officers, but to make sure they understand the language and workflows of the people who use their software.
The User Sits Next to the Developer
Under an Operational Experimentation (OPEX) agreement, the German Navy tested north.io’s Ocean Data technologies under realistic conditions. This work began in spring 2026 during the Seabed Security Experimentation Centre (SeaSEC). SeaSEC serves as a multinational innovation and experimentation platform for the German Navy, bringing military users, research, and industry together to test and develop technologies and procedures under realistic conditions.
In Sesimbra, our programmers worked where the software is used. Requirements arising during an exercise can be captured, assessed, and sometimes implemented on site. Rapid prototyping, the fast development, adaptation and retesting of a technical solution, becomes the working method: test, observe, gather feedback, adapt and test again.
To learn more about north.io's participation at REPMUS 2026, what challenges we had to overcome, and what feedback we received on our work and our software, read the full specialist article from Arne Krüger.
