The Royal Navy has been trialling new robotic systems to help it deal with both new threats to critical undersea infrastructure (CUI) and legacy explosives.
As per a recent press statement from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (dstl), part of the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD), it has been partnering with commercial firms on systems to help stop adversaries sabotaging undersea cables and pipelines.
Dstl and Royal Navy specialists have been teaming up with firms including Atlantas Marine, which provides the Defender remotely operated vehicle (ROV), Alford Technologies and ECS Special Projects, which specialise in ordnance disposal systems, and Sonardyne, a leading designer and manufacturer of underwater acoustic, inertial navigation, wireless communication, and sonar technology systems.
Watch footage of the system in action on YouTube
The testing being done by dstl and Royal Navy is aiming to develop an integrated system to sense and find unexploded ordnance or maliciously-placed threats and remotely place explosives to neutralise them.
Trials have taken place in a number of locations both here in the U.K. at Horsea Island in Portsmouth, in Portland Harbour, and in south Wales, as well as further afield in Norway.
A dstl explosives engineer named only as John for security reasons commented: “This technology would be a valuable toolset for keeping our armed forces safe whilst providing the public with value for money.
“This unique capability with its sensors, tools and cameras will give operators a real-time ability to deal with these underwater hazards in a safe, effective and efficient way.”
The ROV can work at greater depths and for longer durations than divers could, and of course also serves to keep humans out of harm’s way. Instead, the ship- or shore-launched system is controlled by afar, with operators informed by the robot’s video and sonar feeds.
- You can read more about the trials on the dstl website