UDT 2021 takes place 15-17 December in Rostock, Germany Senior military personnel and industry experts will put the operational dynamic of ‘teamwork in the underwater domain’ front and centre when the global undersea defence community comes together at UDT 2021 in Rostock, Germany, in December.

Underwater obstacle avoidance technology from maritime defence technology companies, Sonardyne and Wavefront, has been successfully demonstrated on board an extra-large, uncrewed, underwater vehicle (XLUUV) built and operated by Plymouth-based MSubs Ltd.

Cutting-edge ways of navigating in the event of disruption of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are being explored by innovative UK industry on behalf of Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S).

It is expected – subject to weather conditions – that the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows, will formally open Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) next week, with their signature nine aircraft flypast.

Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) will host five Royal Navy and international visiting ships when it takes place 14-17 September at London ExCeL. The vessels will provide an exclusive showcase of maritime technology and capability for visitors to explore.

The second OCEAN2020 demonstration is due to take place in the Baltic Sea in the end of August. The exercise, which will be coordinated by Saab, will focus upon how naval forces can detect and identify high-speed surface threats and unknown submerged activity. OCEAN2020 is the largest European funded defence research project for maritime surveillance and sees Leonardo coordinating a team of 43 partners from 15 countries. The Baltic Sea demo will involve 13 unmanned systems, four naval units – a Swedish Support Ship, Lithuanian Patrol Vessel, Polish Mine Hunter and a German Research Vessel - a satellite and two command centres.

Last week SEAMOR Marine’s Chinook ROV was used by Honolulu-based Sea Engineering, Inc. to help locate and survey a downed Boeing 737 cargo plane. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff about two miles offshore from Ewa Beach in Oahu, Hawaii, and sank to the seafloor at a depth of 350 to 450 feet - a depth too dangerous for divers to navigate. The only two passengers onboard Transair flight 810, both pilots, were rescued by helicopter.

In recognition of Ultra's drive to be at the forefront of technology advancement, Ultra announces today that it has been awarded six contracts by Canada’s Department of National Defence Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program.

WITT Limited, the South West of England based renewable energy tech company, has secured a £350k contract with the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) to develop energy harvesting technology for the subsea environment. DASA is a cross-Government organisation and part of the Ministry of Defence; it finds and funds innovation to support UK defence and security.

ECA GROUP will replace the vessels’ conventional mine detection systems based on a hull sonar with a more compact, mobile and evolutive unmanned system UMIS, consisting of AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) A18-M drones fitted with the latest generation ECA GROUP synthetic aperture sonar UMISAS for detection, and several underwater robots, the Seascan MK2 and K-STER C for mines identification and neutralisation.

Teledyne Marine is proud to announce the supply of ten RDI Pathfinder Doppler Velocity Logs and five BlueView M900-2250-130 imaging sonars to specialist of Acoustics and Drones: RTSYS.

Kraken Robotics Inc., Canada’s Ocean Company™, is pleased to announce that it has signed a cooperation agreement with SH Defense (SHD) of Denmark covering the design and sale of containerized mine countermeasure and other subsea surveillance sensor and robotic solutions.

Maritime defence technology company Sonardyne and uncrewed maritime systems (UMS) software experts SeeByte have been awarded UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) funding to enhance and extend the future operational capability of autonomous and remotely operated systems in challenging battlespace domains.

Kongsberg technology is set to play a pivotal role in the working life of a recently-activated microsatellite. The Norwegian Space Agency’s new NorSat-3, launched on April 29th, 2021 from Vega Flight VV 18 which took off from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guyana, will be used by the Norwegian Coastal Administration for monitoring maritime traffic in Norway’s busy seaways. Its AIS and NRD (navigation radar detector) payload draws upon Kongsberg’s most advanced, future-proof developments in space-based vessel detection.

The biennial defence and security event, DSEI, will proceed as planned in September 2021 with a new digital offering running alongside the much-anticipated live exhibition.

Developed by the Turkish companies Ares Shipyard and Meteksan Defence, Turkey’s first armed unmanned surface vessel ULAQ prototype has completed sea trials.

The event, previously scheduled for June, has been delayed due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19. We are confident the new timeline will allow us to welcome international attendees to the show.

Blueprint Lab has been awarded a Defence Global Competitiveness Grant to grow our in-house verification and testing capabilities. The grant will go towards the purchase of an inspection class ROV deployable test vehicle and associated equipment as well as fund certification activities to meet international EMC safety standards.