Divers from the US, German and Dutch navies concluded several days of expeditionary mine countermeasures (ExMCM) training as part of exercise Bold Alligator 2017 (BA17). The combined ExMCM force had members from the Royal Netherlands Navy Defense Dive Group Very Shallow Water (VSW) Dive Platoon, Ger
US naval researchers recently demonstrated a new capability which would allow the communication of a submerged unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) with a shore station through an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) as a communications relay. The US Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) remotely collaborat
The US Navy has awarded unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) manufacturer AeroVironment a $2.5 million contract for further work on the US Navy’s small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) program. The contract follows the first successful launch of a Blackwing UAV from a submerged position and will see the co
The US Navy has established its first dedicated unmanned undersea vehicle squadron – UUVRON 1 – at a ceremony at Naval Undersea Warfare Center, September 26. In addition to the establishment of a new squadron, the ceremony saw Submarine Development Squadron 5 change command with Capt. Stephen Mack r
The US Navy must spend over $1 million to train a single aircraft pilot and finding new, more effective ways of selecting candidates is an imperative for the service. Naval pilots of manned aircraft must pass the Aviation Selection Test Battery (ASTB)—a rigorous intellectual exercise that evaluates
An Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle flew dangerously close to a US Navy aircraft carrier sailing in the Persian Gulf in the second such event in the region in seven days. According to the Washington Post, an Iranian drone flew past the USS Nimitz several times on Sunday coming as close as 1,000 feet
The Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City and Naval Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Newport are hosting the Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) 2017 which kicked off August 14. The ANTX 2017 theme is “Battlespace Preparation in a Contested Environment (BPCE). ANTX provides a low-risk e
Researchers from the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have found a new use for a 90’s-designed autonomous underwater vehicle called Autonomous Mobile Periscope System (AMPS). When it came time to evaluate the Periscope Detection and Discrimination (PDD) capability, a radar interface that detects t
An Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle forced a US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet to alter course in order to avoid collision in the Central Persian Gulf on August 8. According to the US Naval Forces Central Command, the Iranian QOM-1 UAV executed unsafe and unprofessional altitude changes in the close vicin
The U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command completed integration tests of the Logos Technologies’ Redkite wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) sensor aboard a TigerShark tactical unmanned aerial vehicle developed by the Navmar Applied Sciences Corporation (NASC). The flight was conducted in Yuma, Arizona,
The U.S. Navy will be looking at multiple existing ship designs for its new frigate instead of focusing on simply up-gunning the troubled littoral combat ships, the service’s request for information has revealed. Published on July 10, 2017, the RFI outlines what the U.S. Navy wants the future Guided
Boeing’s extra large unmanned undersea vehicle (XLUVV), the 51 foot (15 meter) long Echo Voyager, has started sea trials off the coast of Southern California, the company announced. Boeing test engineers are checking the vehicle’s communications, autonomy, propulsion, systems integration and the veh
The U.S. government has approved UUV Aquabotix’s Endura unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) for placement on the GSA schedule, the company announced on June 5. The GSA (General Services Administration) is an agency of the United States government that supplies products for U.S. government offices and
U.S. Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Commands (NAVMETOCCOM) spent the last several months preparing for an operational demonstration of unmanned systems which is taking place in the Gulf of Mexico between May 31 and June 1. Operations and observations collected during the demonstration will be in
