Mother Ship with USV Flotilla Could Boost Coast Guard Capabilities
Gallup of the US Naval Postgraduate School, highlight the relatively lower costs that would be involved compared to building and crewing traditional coast guard ships.A U.S. Navy version is armed and intended to protect the sea lanes of communication (trading routes) in the island chains of the Pacific Ocean. This warship concept is called the Lightly Manned Automated Combat Capability (LMACC).These needs point to the inability of many countries to build government vessels quickly. The current Canadian flagship icebreaker, the Louis S. St-Laurent, sailed her maiden Arctic voyage in 1969 (56 years
NOAA: Operational Forecast System Informs Shipwreck Oil Spill Scenarios
and sank off the coast of Cape Flattery, Washington. Resting almost 500 feet below the surface, the Coast Trader has an estimated 542 tons of heavy fuel oil remaining in the fuel tanks. The quantity onboard the Coast Trader is equivalent to 60% of the volume of fuel spilled into the Pacific Ocean near Grays Harbor by the barge Nestucca in 1988, which remains one of Washington’s largest and most damaging oil spills.In collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) began a comprehensive assessment of potential
A New Approach to Studying the Air-Sea Flux
interactions that occur at the air-sea flux requires simultaneous measurement of multiple in-situ co-located variables at a level of accuracy not provided by satellites or numerical models.This is something USVs are good at, but currently there are large gaps in USV monitoring including in the Pacific Ocean and high latitudes. Additionally, USVs have not yet been active in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic.Even where USV manufacturers, universities and research institutions have pioneered ground-breaking USV capabilities, the data has been siloed within individual projects, say the researchers
OPT Sends Off WAM-V USV for Indo-Pacific Operations
with 24/7 operational payloads for multiple days without requiring a return to base.This unit recently completed demonstration, conducting a three day fully remote, continuous survey operation, while deploying a simulated survey payload."This is a great milestone for OPT. The vastness of the Pacific Ocean makes this an important capability for our customers.“This design enables the WAM-V to conduct prolonged operations inclusive of survey, maritime security, and/or environmental research with a complex array of above and below the waterline sensing capability,” said Philipp Stratmann
First Deep-Sea Mining Company Asks Trump for International Permit
shore, and companies are already lining up to mine U.S. waters.Vancouver-based The Metals Co asked the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for a commercial recovery permit under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act of 1980 to operate in part of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.The application was timed to coincide with a Tuesday hearing on deep-sea mining by a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee at which Gerard Barron, CEO of The Metals Co, testified."America has an urgent need for critical
Trump Order Fast Tracks Subsea Mining
.S. access to nickel, copper and other critical minerals used widely across the economy.The order, which Trump signed in private, seeks to jumpstart the mining of both U.S. and international waters as part of a push to offset China's sweeping control of the critical minerals industry.Parts of the Pacific Ocean and elsewhere are estimated to contain large amounts of potato-shaped rocks known as polymetallic nodules filled with the building blocks for electric vehicles and electronics.More than 1 billion metric tons of those nodules are estimated to be in U.S. waters and filled with manganese, nickel
Impossible Metals Seeks Mining Lease Near American Samoa
Deep-sea mining firm Impossible Metals said on Tuesday that it has asked U.S. federal officials to launch a commercial auction for access to deposits of nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals off the coast of American Samoa.The waters around the Pacific Ocean territory are estimated to contain large amounts of potato-shaped rocks known as polymetallic nodules filled with the building blocks for electric vehicles and electronics.The request from privately held Impossible Metals asks the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management - which oversees mineral deposits in
China Concerned About US Deep-Sea Metals Stockpile Plan
resource exploration in the seabed, China's foreign ministry said on Monday, following a report of U.S. plans to stockpile deep-sea metals to counter China's dominance in the sector.The Trump administration is drafting an executive order to enable stockpiling of deep-sea metals found on the Pacific Ocean seabed to counter China's dominance of battery minerals and rare earth supply chains, the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.The stockpile would "create large quantities ready and available on U.S. territory to be used in the future," in
Trump Plans to Stockpile Deep Sea Metals
The Trump administration is drafting an executive order to enable the stockpiling of metals found on the Pacific Ocean seabed to counter China's dominance in battery minerals and rare earth supply chains, The Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.(Reuters - Reporting by Rajveer Singh Pardesi in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter)
February 2025
