Royal Navy uncrewed aircraft trial marks European first
UK flight test sees largest unmanned aircraft take off from a Royal Navy aircraft carrier.
Sea Machines Robotics has partnered with Hike Metal to integrate Sea Machines’ SM300 autonomous vessel control system onto commercial vessels tasked with SAR missions, the company announced on 14 May.
The collaboration will help develop and demonstrate the capabilities of autonomous marine technology for the purposes of increasing the productivity and safety of SAR operations.
Once installed, the SM300 will give Hike Metal vessels new capabilities including autonomous SAR capability, data-driven waypoint following and mission planning, collaborative vessel operations, remote vessel and payload control, minimally manned and unmanned configurations, and obstacle avoidance.
Sea Machines technologies also enable minimally manned and unmanned autonomous operations. Such configurations allow operators to respond to rescue events anytime of the day or night, even when crews are unavailable or restricted.
Phase I demonstrations will begin in summer of 2019 aboard a new-build, 27ft rigid hull inflatable boat. The vessel will be equipped with twin 200-HP engines, a remote-control Flir camera system, a heated survivor seating area, remote-control rescue cradles and extended-range fuel reserves.
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.