NUWC to host demos of unmanned undersea vehicles

NEWPORT – The Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Division Newport, will host a major exercise and demonstration of autonomous undersea vehicles (AUVs) and technologies in Narragansett Bay May 12 to 23.

AUVfest 2008 is bing co-sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.

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AUVfest 2008 will provide the U.S. Navy with an opportunity to test the mine-hunting capabilities of AUV technologies in Narragansett Bay, and NOAA an opportunity to determine how those technologies may apply to searching for and protecting shipwrecks and other culturally important submerged resources.

The theme of AUVfest 2008 is “Partnership Runs Deep: ONR Unmanned Mine Hunting Technologies help NOAA Explore Sunken History.”

NOAA’s focus for the event will be shipwreck exploration, with a team of marine archaeologists using the AUVs and their onboard technologies to survey two sunken Revolutionary War-era British frigates in Narragansett Bay.

Thirteen AUV technologies will be used during the event, which will demonstrate several Navy mine countermeasure mission objectives, including searching and mapping capabilities; mine hunting; mine neutralization; and hull inspections. The AUVs will be launched from several boats that will operate from the Navy’s Stillwater Basin in Middletown.

Navy counter-mine technology has a potential dual use to help NOAA find “sunken history,” by allowing maritime archaeologists to “see” below the seafloor, in new resolutions and at new depths to enable maritime archaeologists to better understand submerged cultural and historic resources without disturbing those sites.

By introducing maritime archaeologists to this new technology, NOAA hopes to significantly advance and support the search for sunken history in the future.

Seven previous AUVFests have been conducted since the events began in 1997.

Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Division Newport, is one of two divisions of the NUWC, which is headquartered in Newport. Its other division is in Keyport, Wash. NUWC Division Newport’s mission is to support NUWC by providing research, development, test and evaluation, engineering and fleet support for submarines, autonomous underwater systems, undersea offensive and defensive weapons systems, and countermeasures associated with undersea warfare. To learn more, visit www.npt.nuwc.navy.mil.