CAMMera project kicks off to help reduce underwater munition

Today a new European project has been launched to address the most hidden environmental challenge for Europe’s seas: the clearance and safe disposal of historic marine munitions.

The CAMMera project – “Clearance Activities for Marine Munition through Efficient Remediation Approaches” – has been announced today at the opening of the Kiel Munition Week,   the international expert forum for tackling the challenges of offshore munition clearance and critical infrastructure protection. 

Over the next three years, the CAMMera will build on tools and technologies developed in previous projects for mapping and characterising submerged munitions. The scope is to advance technologies especially for the final phase of clearance and disposal.

The project aims towards large-scale removal of explosives and other hazardous materials from underwater dumpsites.

Addressing a Long-Standing Underwater Threat

Marine munition – leftover from past wars and dumped at sea – poses an ongoing risk to the marine environment, fisheries, offshore infrastructure, and coastal communities. While earlier EU-funded projects successfully advanced underwater detection systems and identified environmental risks, the final step of clearing and disposing of the munitions has yet to be tackled at scale.

CAMMera seeks to address this gap. It focuses on the fourth and most challenging phase of offshore explosive ordnance disposal: clearance and disposal. The project will design and test a range of innovative tools and systems, including:

• Remote-controlled and automated platforms to carry out clearance work safely from the surface;
• Environmentally friendly methods to remove open or broken shells;
• Continuous surveillance above and below water during clean-up operations;
• A fully automated disassembly process for industrial-scale disposal.

Bridging the gaps in regulation and practice

Beyond technology, CAMMera also addresses the broader picture. Today, there are no agreed rules for how much of these dumpsites must be cleared, or how to assess whether a site has been fully remediated. The project will explore these open questions while continuing to improve environmental monitoring tools.

CAMMera will also develop a European business case for munition clearance and create a roadmap for applying these solutions in all European sea basins – including the Black Sea. This will be supported by EU-level workshops to promote knowledge-sharing and engage with national authorities, experts and industry.

A comprehensive Unexploded ordnance (UXO) strategy to remove unexploded ordnance from European waters, starting in the Baltic and North Seas was announced as part of the new Ocean Pact last week.

The project is funded by the European Union under the Pilot Projects and Preparation Actions (PPPA) and is managed by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA).