Royal Navy uncrewed aircraft trial marks European first
UK flight test sees largest unmanned aircraft take off from a Royal Navy aircraft carrier.
Fugro Survey (Middle East) Limited (FSME) has recently ordered another GAPS, IXSEA's pre-calibrated USBL system, because of its unique high performance in extremely shallow waters.
The first GAPS USBL was mobilized in the spring of 2008 for several construction jobs on behalf of the EPC contractor J. Ray McDermott Middle East in Qatar. A significant number of mattresses and sleepers were laid successfully between Ras Laffan and various new platforms in North Field. The environment was noisy with a water depth often less than 20m.
Following this success, FSME is now expanding its pool of USBL in ordering a second GAPS unit for the Middle East.
"GAPS presents a far better robustness to multipath and noise thanks to the 3D configuration of its head, its wideband modulation and the implantation of a powerful algorithm," explained Jean-Marc Binois, IXSEA's Area Sales Manager based in Dubai.
Mike Dravitzki (FSME General Manager) commented: "We were pleased to confirm our order for a second GAPS system following the successful introduction of the first GAPS System into the Arabian Gulf region.
This second GAPS unit will be used to accurately position the Shell Pearl GTL pipelines as they are laid by J. Ray McDermott in Qatar later this year."
UK flight test sees largest unmanned aircraft take off from a Royal Navy aircraft carrier.
CATIC have displayed its new AR-2000 drone at Dubai Airshow 2023, emphasising ship-based capabilities with PLA already purchasing.
Australia has ordered four Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton UAS which can operate as an uncrewed maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) alongside the country’s in-service Boeing P-8A MPA fleet.
The Khronos tethered UAS has been designed to be simple to use and has drawn on Elistair’s experience with hundreds of existing customers.
The use of long-duration Uncrewed Surface Vehicles for maritime surveillance and monitoring has become part of the fleet inventory as navies try to reduce the level of effort required to gather intelligence on areas of interest.
A growing number of uncrewed systems have been on show at Sydney's Indo-Pacific Maritime exhibition with a select few currently being trialled to see if they can enhance the Royal Australian Navy's surveillance levels.