US Navy foresees an uncrewed future for its surface and underwater fleet
The service has been conducting various procurement and development efforts to integrate unmanned surface and underwater vehicles into its inventory.
Seamor Marine has delivered a Chinook remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to the department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Manitoba for inspection of the High Arctic area.
The High Arctic area encompasses the northern regions of Canada, from Arctic Basin, Baffin Bay and the Pikialasorsuaq, to western Greenland. With estimates that sea ice is decreasing at a rate of 11% per decade in the Arctic due to climate change, it is anticipated that the Arctic could lose its summer ice by 2050 and be largely ice-free by 2070.
The Chinook ROV will be deployed for ‘The Last Ice Project’, which is a collaboration between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Parks Canada Agency and Indigenous, Northern and International partners, including the World Wildlife Fund-Canada and Pristine Seas – National Geographic Society.
The vehicle, which can dive to 2,000ft below the surface, will be used to conduct ecosystem identification and benthic surveys (underwater mapping of the sea floor) and inspection of first-year ice and multi-year ice.
The ROV is equipped with a handheld pendant controller and a fibre optic tether multiplexer upgrade. These will help control a wide range of on-board instrumentation such as USBL underwater positioning system with GPS integration, allowing the ROV to be tracked in real-world coordinates in real time; and an integrated Tritech Micron Echosounder which permits the ROV to measure its height above the sea floor and maintain its height with the company’s auto-altitude system.
The vehicle also features a dual function gripper, a sensor skid, which provides opportunities to integrate additional sensors to the system; double-dot tilting colour-laser scaling system, and a HD camera with uncompressed digital output.
The service has been conducting various procurement and development efforts to integrate unmanned surface and underwater vehicles into its inventory.
Tekever has manufactured the AR3, AR4 and AR5 UAS with all systems sharing common electronics and software architecture, which has enabled the reuse of ground segment elements within the new ARX UAS.
As the dynamics of aerial combat rapidly evolve, Chinese scientists have engineered a sophisticated air separation drone model that can fragment into up to six drones, each capable of executing distinct battlefield roles and challenging the efficacy of current anti-drone defences such as the UK’s Dragonfire laser system.
Advancements in air defence technologies have begun to reshape aerial combat dynamics in the Middle East, as illustrated by recent events involving the Israeli Air Force and Hezbollah.
Both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war have been using UAS for effective low-cost attacks, as well as impactful web and social media footage. Thousands more have now been committed to Ukrainian forces.
The US Army has intentions to develop light, medium and heavy variants of the Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) as part of the branche’s Next Generation Combat Vehicle family.