Posted on 05/07/2012 8:07:40 AM PDT by wizzardude
Edited on 05/07/2012 8:09:31 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Technology that sent unmanned aircraft over Iraq and Afghanistan soon could be steering unstaffed naval boats for such dangerous tasks as minesweeping, submarine detection, intelligence gathering and approaching hostile vessels.
Defense contractor Textron Inc. demonstrated what it calls its Common Unmanned Surface Vessel technology Thursday at its Textron Marine & Land Systems shipyard in New Orleans.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.phys.org ...
If the public would tolerate them we could build unmanned cargo and tanker ships right now. Electronic engine management, GPS, and autopilots already mean ship crews are much smaller than they used to be and there is very little for the bridge crew to do between ports. They might need crews at the channel entrance to bring them into port and dock them but the crews could be taken off at the sea buoy on outgoing ships. Webcams and satellite links would allow the ship to be monitored and adjusted from centralized command centers on shore. One land based crew could monitor many ships at sea. I’d bet it’s coming but I’m not sure how long it’s going to take. Same thing is true of commercial airliners by the way. That may take longer because passengers want to know there is a qualified man/woman in the cockpit.
Rule 5 - Lookout
Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.
My sister and her husband have a 115’ boat they keep in a sheltered moorage in Seattle. We visited them on it in the waters around Juneau last year and I was being given the rundown of the Ships controls by the captain.
Basically they could have dialed in the waters in Elliot Bay (Seattle), hit “go”, and everyone could have gotten off the boat in the island waters near Juneau and met it in Seattle.
However, heaven help the boat or log that got in front of it.
Yep. I had a 50’ DeFever trawler with GPS, chart plotter, autopilot, and depth finer, all linked electronically. You can set radar and depth alerts and program the course in and then basically go about your business while the boat does it’s thing. Of course we always had someone on watch but the boat didn’t really care.
Unmanned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A Navy vessel with all women?!?!?
In the sailing community, we little blow boats are called 'freighter bait'
I need one of those with the gator huntin’ option.
Unfortunately it’s true. Even if he’s awake and alert the lone seaman on watch in a supertanker’s bridge may not see that 40’ sailboat 1,000 feet away, and couldn’t do anything at that point if he did, and 100 feet below him at night or in bad weather. Those on the ship won’t even feel the collision. Sailboaters are guilty too of setting the autopilot and going below decks for a little shuteye or a quick meal, especially if short handed on a long passage. It’s why I insisted someone be on watch all the time and I be notified if anything came within 3 miles of us.
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