Posted on 06/08/2010 4:46:07 AM PDT by Jonah Hex
Four underwater unmanned vehicles went missing Sunday during training to conduct search, classify and map missions.
The Navy, Coast Guard and local authorities were searching for the missing vehicles in the Thimble Shoals Channel between the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a Navy news release said.
Communication was lost with four of the 13 unmanned vehicles Sunday about 1 p.m. while the vehicles were using bottom-mapping sonar to look for mine-like contacts in the water as part of the training. Search and recovery operations began immediately.
Efforts continued Monday using small-craft, shore-based teams, air assets and marine mammal systems, which could include sea lions and dolphins trained to hunt mines.
The cause of the vehicles disappearance is under investigation. The missing vehicles do not pose a danger to civilians or the environment, the Navy release said, but if an unmanned vehicle is discovered floating in the water, boaters should avoid it as they would any other navigation hazard.
If one of the missing vehicles is found, please call the U.S. Second Fleet commander at (757) 443-9821.
The unmanned vehicles were being used as part of a larger training exercise with about 2,500 personnel from Canadian and U.S. military forces and government civilian agencies. The annual training exercise will continue through Friday.
Ping to the Navy ping list?
4? in one day? sounds like a lot
I’m forming a mental picture of one of these things homing in on someone preparing for their first “water skiing” adventure...
Sounds like somebody f'd up. Some blueshirt'll take the hit.
Odd that FOUR went off the screen at the same time.
Hold mah beer and watch THIS !!!
Not if all four had the same software running (which the undoubtedly did), and that software had a bug that all four managed to “surface” (no pun intended).
Search BP.
"Andrei, you've lost another submarine?"
If they want to find them, send down some of the ROVs that BP was using on the Deepwater Horizon. They don’t seem to be doing much at the moment.
That’s probably standard issue “don’t F with our expensive technology”.
Probably snagged by Russian sub......
heat seeking suppository?
ieeeee
very odd indeed. Incompetence in spades or intentional act??
I’m forming a picture of idiots getting these vehicles ready for ‘duty’
"Hmm, alpha went off the screens, send in bravo." ... "Hmm, bravo had some kind of malfunction, bring charlie over here to check it out..." ...
I am thinking aliens.
Or perhaps something very big that lives there that does not want ot be discovered.
Tally of unmanned submersibles lost:
BP — Zero
Navy — Four in one day
Remind me again why the government is supposed to take over for BP.
Were these guys surveying drilling platforms and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge supports (and tunnel) for suspicious activity?
Terrorist acts to destroy offshore oil rigs- ? Do we think the govt would admit this and has a protection plan?
If the terros have subs to place explosives capable of collapsing the bridge and/or tunnel - mass casualty disaster and also close off the Chesapeake Bay to shipping-
If a hostile entity gets all the way up the Bay and the Potomac to DC, they could emulate the British in 1814. And of course halfway up the Bay is Calvert Cliffs.
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