Day #2 of our side-by-side Naval Damage Control (NDC) and Maritime Search And Rescue (MSAR) conferences has continued to inform, educate and entertain in equal measure.
Those listening and engaging with the NDC presentations in the morning session had their attention drawn to one of the most essential aspects of preparing naval crews, first responders and shore-side personnel for damage control incidents: live training.
The audience learned how the Royal Navy is seeking to blend synthetic and live training to maintain readiness in forward-deployed ships, embracing AI in the process and introducing more uncrewed systems, too.
Commodore Andrew Ingham, the Royal Navy’s FOST Commander, spoke about the necessity of embracing synthetic capabilities to effectively deliver training to a globally deployed force and meet the increasing demands from both the RN and its NATO partners and allies.
“I will never be short of a job,” he joked, adding: “Live training is still important, but we must embrace synthetics, now and in the future.”
He noted the capability of synthetic systems to offer immersive and realistic training was improving day by day, but admitted all navies were on a similar journey to develop them, and a thought-provoking discussion at the end of the presentation took in current limitations, too.
Communications latency compromising the realism of distributed training exercises was one challenge to be addressed, as well as the problem of how ships deployed at sea could balance exercise participation with the need to simultaneously maintain situational awareness of their real-world surroundings.
In other presentations, insights were offered into efforts to integrate civilian firefighters with their naval counterparts for collaboration in training exercises, too, with speakers from both the German Navy and the U.S. Navy tackling this subject over the course of the day.
The audience heard how in North Carolina, a specific course 40-42-hour course had been developed to acquaint civilian fire crews with the specific demands of coping with vessel fires, described vividly by the speaker as akin to “a high-rise building laid on its side.”
Specific challenges of dealing with blazes on naval vessels included high compartmentalisation, difficulty of access, and the potential for rapid escalation due to the presence of large amounts of fuel, ammunition, and weapons systems.
Yet civilian crews had a big opportunity to play a key role in terms of rapid response, critical initial blaze suppression, water supply support and personnel surges as required.
This contribution was augmented by perspectives from the Iberian peninsula, with representatives from both the Spanish and Portuguese Navy explaining the approaches they are taking to damage control and training.
Advances in the Integrated Platform Management System provided by Navantia to the Spanish Navy, for instance, promise to deliver early warning of fault detection via predictive AI algorithms, automatic prioritisation of ship alarms to reduce response times, and even the ability to integrate a ship’s combat management system and auto-isolate potential impact zones to limit secondary system damage.
Other diverse topics covered in the NDC conference theatre today included everything from survivability and wargaming, to damage control on cruise ships.
And one of the most talked-about presentations of the day was delivered by FLAIM Systems, which demonstrated its VR firefighting systems live on stage, projecting the user’s simulated scenario in real time on the overhead screens, and inviting selected volunteer audience members to assess the firefighter’s performance in the exercise.
Meanwhile, in the MSAR conference, thoughts turned to the future, particularly initially with regard to next-generation rescue vessels. Key capabilities for the rescue craft of tomorrow included interoperability with uncrewed systems, AI-driven sensors, and hybrid propulsion.
There was also much discussion of the capabilities, current use and future capabilities of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) for SAR missions. The audience heard how multispectral camera systems on UAS could be particularly useful for heat signature detection.
This was true not only for searches in the water, but also for looking through vegetation when responding to inland flooding emergencies. There was also discussion of how UAS could respond rapidly to emergencies — deploying to an incident 10km away inside eight minutes — both to supply initial visual data but also potentially to drop rescue equipment, locators, or comms.
It’s even technically feasible (if regulators permit) for UAS to detect mobile phone signals and remotely activate their speakerphone functions to provide communication links for people in distress.
And the audience also heard about how the U.K. Coast Guard was using UAS in conjunction with Bristow Helicopters and how it envisioned this capability developing from initial operational areas covering north Wales and then the English Channel to a U.K-wide capability in the years ahead.
During the period between March 2022 and August this year, the Schiebel UAS platforms operated by Bristow for HMCG had flown around 2,500 hours over the English Channel area, locating around 680 vessels and about 30,000 people in distress.
One significant advantage of this approach has been to free up crewed assets for other duties; across the same timeframe there had been a 75% drop in the required deployment of crewed helicopter assets for Channel search operations, as well as a significant reduction in the need to use fixed-wing assets.
Other diverse topics tackled across Day #2 in the MSAR conference included the challenges of maritime surveillance across vast and sometimes contested sea areas.
They also took in the ongoing need for SAR communities to prepare for mass rescue operations, identifying differences in regional approaches, arguably problematic regulatory definitions, and potential gaps in provision and suitability of existing surface assets.
As with Day #1, the discussions were as diverse and wide-ranging as they were informative, and a comprehensive summary is beyond the reach of any single report. Doubtless our final day tomorrow will continue in the same vein.