Recent results from military operations with the HUGIN 1000 AUV

The first HUGIN 1000 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) was delivered to the Royal Norwegian Navy (RNoN) in Janu- ary 2004, and has since been deployed in a series of military exercises. Operated from the RNoN mine hunter KNM Karmøy, the AUV has been used in the Joint Winter and Blue Game NATO exercises, and has also been deployed in MCMFORNORTH, NATO's standing MCM force in Northern Europe. The HUGIN 1000 AUV has been tasked with a variety of operations, ranging from shallow water mine reconnaissance to cov- ert Rapid Environmental Assessment (REA). A comprehensive sensor suite, including a Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS), has been employed. The article presents key lessons learned from these operations, and future plans for the Norwegian military AUV program.