10 Mar 16. Liquid Robotics(R), the pioneer of wave and solar powered ocean robots, announced that its fleets of Wave Gliders(R) have reached 1 million nautical miles at sea — an important milestone for the unmanned surface vehicle (USV) industry. The Wave Glider is the first USV to complete missions from the Arctic to the Southern Ocean, operate through 17 hurricanes/typhoons, and achieve a Guinness World Record for the “longest journey by an autonomous, unmanned surface vehicle on the planet.” One million nautical miles is the equivalent to 1.29x round trip journey to the moon (at the moon’s furthest point) or approximately 46 times around the world.
“A million nautical miles at sea is an important threshold for Liquid Robotics, our customers, and the unmanned surface systems industry,” said Gary Gysin, President and CEO of Liquid Robotics. “We’re leveraging this expertise to help build an ocean sensor network with Wave Gliders serving as the communications hub and mobile sensor platform. Our vehicles are collecting and transmitting data today that is too costly or difficult to obtain, but is vital to our understanding and protection of the ocean.”
Over the past decade, government and commercial organizations have turned to unmanned ocean robots to lower the cost, risks, and improve ocean access, allowing better measurement, monitoring, and understanding of maritime environments. In the Defense, Oil & Gas, and Scientific markets, Wave Gliders have been deployed to extend the range and effectiveness of traditional observation and surveillance systems. Missions have been conducted in all five major oceans collecting and communicating environmental, security, weather, and seismic data.
“For the unmanned systems industry surpassing one million nautical miles is a landmark event,” said Dr. James Bellingham, Director Center for Marine Robotics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “It clearly proves Wave Gliders (USVs) can sustain long duration operations required for scientific and defense missions. They’re changing how we explore and protect the ocean.”
09 Mar 16. UAE Purchases 8 Drones in Deals Worth $400m. The UAE signed three deals worth more than Dhs 1.47bn (USD 400m) at the UMEX exhibition, including a contract for eight drones.
Brigadier General Rashid Mohammed Al-Shamsi said the country had signed a Dhs 1.32bn contract with Abu Dhabi Autonomous Systems Investments Company for 31 HH craft equipped with night cameras, radars and telecommunications devices.
The deal includes training, spare parts and maintenance. It also signed a Dhs 143.3m deal for the training of helicopter pilots with Baker Australian College and another with Aeryon Labs Inc to buy SkyRanger small Unmanned Aerial Systems.
Al Shamsi said, “We deal with the UAE companies on the basis of competition with other International companies. The decision is taken by benchmarking and comparison. We sort and select the best product.”
He said he hoped for a bigger turnout at the next event in 2018. Deals at this year’s event touched Dhs 2.237bn.
Unmanned aerial vehicles are seeing increasing use from militaries around the world.
Consulting firm Teal Group said that the UAE and Saudi Arabia could be the main buyers of the craft in the coming years.
Saudi Arabia is believed to have allocated SAR 213.4bn for military and security spending in light of regional conflicts, including Syria and Yemen, and rival Iran’s return to the world stage. [The Al Sabr system development was initiated in 2003 to answer a requirement of the UAE Armed Forces. The platform for Al Sabr, the Schiebel Camcopter® S-100 was developed under a Joint Program between the UAE Government and Austria, During the production phase, manufacturing of some of the major components, final assembly and testing took place in the UAE.- UAS Vision Ed] (Source: UAS VISION/Gulf Business)
07 Mar 16. MUSCLE AUV upgraded with new field-swappable storage unit. NATO’s Centre for Maritime Research an