Metal Shark Debuts Prowler Autonomous Vessel and Frenzy Micro-USV
Louisiana-based boat builder Metal Shark has unveiled Prowler, its new autonomous, amphibious, and semi-submersible military craft engineered to meet the current and near future warfighting requirements of the U.S. military and its allies. The company is also debuting Frenzy, a high-performance, low-cost, amphibious micro-USV (uncrewed surface vehicle) with a payload carrying capacity of up to 14 pounds.“Prowler represents the sum total of everything we’ve learned while building 400-plus autonomous and remote operated vessels for our military customers over the past decade,” said
Kongsberg Discovery Wins US Navy DIU Contract
Innovation Unit (DIU) award to assist in the U.S. Navy’s Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (LDUUV) prototype.Kongsberg Discovery has been awarded a contract with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to rapidly deliver HUGIN Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) capabilities for the U.S. Military. The total contract could result in the Navy acquiring HUGIN Endurance and HUGIN Superior deep-water AUV systems.HUGIN Endurance, one of the newest members in the HUGIN AUV family, measures 39-ft. long and nearly 4-ft. in diameter, with a 15-day endurance, enabling unsupervised shore-to-shore
Taiwan Expects to Deploy Two New Submarines by 2027
with missiles, to strengthen deterrence against the Chinese navy and protect key supply lines, the head of the program said.Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has made the indigenous sub program a key part of an ambitious project to modernise its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises to assert its sovereignty.President Tsai Ing-wen, who initiated the program when she took office in 2016, is expected to launch the first of eight new submarines on Thursday under a plan that has drawn on expertise and technology from several countries - a breakthrough for diplomatically
U.S. Revives Cold War Submarine Spy Program to Counter China
busy tracking whale movements and measuring rising sea temperatures. Last October, the Navy gave the unit a new name that better reflects its current mission: Theater Undersea Surveillance Command.The renaming of the spy station at the Whidbey Island naval base is a nod to a much larger U.S. military project, according to three people with direct knowledge of the plans: conducting the biggest reconstruction of America’s anti-submarine spy program since the end of the Cold War.The revival of the multibillion-dollar effort, known as the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS), comes
Inside the Subsea Cable Firm Secretly Helping America Take on China
On Feb. 10 last year, the cable ship CS Dependable appeared off the coast of the island of Diego Garcia, an Indian Ocean atoll that’s home to a discreet U.S. naval base.Over the next month, the ship’s crew covertly laid an underwater fiber-optic cable to the military base, an operation code-named “Big Wave,” according to four people with direct knowledge of the mission, as well as a Reuters analysis of satellite imagery and ship tracking data.The new super-fast internet link to Diego Garcia, which has not previously been reported, will boost U.S. military readiness in the
US Navy to Name Oceanographic Survey Ship USNS Robert Ballard
MS Shipbuilding—in June 2021, and its keel was ceremonially laid in October 2022.Equipped with a moon pool for unmanned vehicle deployment and retrieval, T-AGS 67 will be a multi-mission ship that will perform acoustic, biological, physical and geophysical surveys, providing much of the U.S. military’s information on the ocean environment. The vessel will be over 350 feet long with an overall beam of 58 feet. T-AGS 67 will be operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC), which consists of non-combatant, civilian crewed ships that replenish U.S. Navy ships, chart ocean bottoms,
US Recovers Warplane that Fell into South China Sea
in January, the U.S. Navy said on Thursday.The wreckage was recovered from a depth of about 12,400 feet using a remotely operated vehicle to attach rigging to the aircraft, which was then hoisted up by a diving support ship, the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet said in an email.It will be delivered to a nearby military installation to aid in the ongoing investigation of the incident, the statement said."The recovery effort shows the U.S. Navy commitment to its assets, and a free and open Indo-Pacific," it said.Seven U.S. military personnel were hurt in the January accident on the deck of the aircraft
US Navy to Recover F-35 Warplane that Fell into South China Sea
The U.S. Navy said on Tuesday it was making arrangements to recover an F-35C warplane that fell into the South China Sea after a landing mishap this week.Seven U.S. military personnel were hurt in Monday's accident on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and the pilot ejected, the Navy said."I can confirm the aircraft impacted the flight deck during landing and subsequently fell to the water," said Lieutenant Nicholas Lingo, spokesperson for the U.S. 7th Fleet."The U.S. Navy is making recovery operations arrangements for the F-35C aircraft."Asked about an unsourced
Offshore Renewable Energy: A Port Puzzle for Floating Offshore Wind
not be long until ports supporting floating offshore wind are also considering landing hydrogen from those wind farms, potentially.Humbolt Bay. Robert Campbell - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Library. CC BY-SA 3.0.Lanard says that, after four years of stagnation – partly due to US military concerns about use of west coast waters – there’s now momentum in this area, with the Biden administration, via BOEM, planning lease rounds in California and Oregon in 2022 and 2023, respectively.But pressure on ports will not just be about assembly and marshalling. Operators are already
February 2024
