Navy testing Autonomous Fleet

Navy Shows Off Autonomous Fleet

by shipmodelsuperstore

The U.S. Office of Naval Research took to the lower Chesapeake Bay recently to show off their new autonomous unmanned swarming boats.

The unmanned boats, mainly of rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) and other small boats, use a network of software, radar and other sensors to get a collectively “swarm” and perform patrol missions autonomously, with only remote human supervision.

During the demo, unmanned boats were given a large area of open water to patrol. As an unknown vessel entered the area, the group of swarmboats collaboratively determined which patrol boat would quickly approach the unknown vessel, classify it as harmless or suspicious, and communicate with other swarmboats to assist in tracking and trailing the unknown vessel while others continued to patrol the area. During this time, the group of swarmboats provided status updates to the human supervisor.

“This demonstration showed some remarkable advances in autonomous capabilities,” said Cmdr. Luis Molina, military deputy for ONR’s Sea Warfare and Weapons Dept. “While previous work had focused on autonomous protection of high-value ships, this time we were focused on harbor approach defense.”

The ONR calls the autonomy technology Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing, or CARACaS. The ONR says components that make up CARACaS (some are commercial off-the-shelf) are inexpensive compared to the costs of maintaining manned vessels for some of the dull, dirty or dangerous tasks—all of which can be found in the work of harbor approach defense, experts say.

“The U.S. Navy knows our most important asset, without question, is our highly trained military personnel,” said Dr. Robert Brizzolara, the program officer at ONR who oversees the effort. “The autonomy technology we are developing for our Sailors and Marines is versatile enough that it will assist them in performing many different missions, and it will help keep them safer.”

In 2014, ONR completed the first major demonstration of CARACaS technology on the James River in Virginia. At that time, the transportable kit containing the autonomy package was installed on multiple RHIBs, allowing them to operate in sync with other unmanned vessels, swarming to intercept potential enemy ships and escorting naval assets.

The demonstration held this year in October built upon that successful demo. Brizzolara says that substantial additional capability has been added to CARACaS since the 2014 demo, including the ability for multiple unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) to collaborate on task allocation; the development of additional USV behaviors and tactics; and advances in automated vessel classification from imagery.

“This technology allows unmanned Navy ships to overwhelm an adversary,” added Molina. “Its sensors and software enable swarming capability, giving naval warfighters a decisive edge.”

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The Queen Victoria has sailed out of Liverpool – with a final surprise.

The last of the Three Queens left the city to a musical farewell as crowds turned out to wave her off at Liverpool Cruise Terminal.

The ship was given a semaphore send off and then balloons were released before she left the city.

Singer Danielle Thomas sang You’ll Never Walk Alone as the ship sailed away from the dock.

The liner then wowed the crowds by turning 360 degrees in the Mersey while music, including songs from The Beatles, played.

Passengers waved Union flags from the balconies of their cabins as they said goodbye to the city.

Richard and Jean Sutlieff, from Blackburn, were on board the Queen Victoria for its arrival in Liverpool.

Text courtesy of Liverpool Echo

Pictures courtesy of G-Captain

Man Spends 20 Years Building 3 Model Ships

Model maker spends 20 years building scaled down fleet of radio-controlled warships
Tony Ansell has been making model warships for the last 20 years at home
Mr Ansell uses original Royal Navy blueprints to make scale model ships
On average ships take three years to make but HMS Dreadnought took nine
Each is made from fibreglass and flexible plastic and is radio controlled

When Tony Ansell was given an Airfix kit at was six-years-old, it was something of an inspiration.
Twenty years on the keen model maker has created a fleet of radio controlled warships at his workshop in Ferndown in Dorset.
Each warship is made to scale, using original Royal Navy blueprints and photographs to ensure they capture a snapshot in time when the vessels were in action. Model maker Tony Ansell spent the last 20 years making scale models of radio controlled navy warships. His Dorset workshop features models of HMS Campbeltown.

Model maker Tony Ansell spent the last 20 years making scale models of radio controlled navy warships. His Dorset workshop features models of HMS Campbeltown, HMS Hood  and HMS Fencer
Mr Ansell, a former plumber, uses original Royal Navy blueprints to make the scale models of the warships and so dedicated is the former plumber to his craft that he is in the process of writing to the Queen to ask for permission to name one of his ships – a G3 battlecruiser – Beatty because the original was cancelled and therefore never named.
‘You need to put in the research and I tend to pick a particular time in the ship’s life to make it at because warships went in for refits lots and could be different from year to year,’ said Mr Ansell, 63.
‘I like to make ships you don’t see at model shows very often and bigger ones are more of a challenge because you have to be more detailed.’

Mr Ansell uses fibreglass to make the hull of the ships and flexible sheets of 1mm thick plastic for the rest of the structure. He researches each of the vessels before he makes them, using photographs to ensure accuracy.
Most of the other items such as guns and aircraft are made from resin and mini Airfix kits.
Constructing the models is a painstaking process, sometimes taking longer than it took to make the actual warships themselves.

HMS Campbeltown was an American ship that was eventually transferred to the Royal Navy in 1940
Mr Ansell’s most recent build, the battleship HMS Dreadnought, is a 6ft long, 1:196 scale model and has as taken him nine years to finish – nine times longer than it took to build the actual warship in 1906.
But the project was delayed by a lack of photographs of the vessel and he built two other models during that time.
He has also made models of aircraft carrier HMS Fencer, HMS Campbeltown and HMS Hood, the ship sunk by the Germans in World War Two.

The HMS Dreadnought replica was the most time consuming of all Mr Ansell’s models and each additional part, from aircraft to weapons and fighters is made with similar attention to detail from resin or airfix kits
He is making a G3 battlecruiser – a ship that was planned but not built because a naval treaty came into place that limited the weight of warships.
Because the G3 was cancelled, it was never given a name, so Tony plans to write to the Queen to ask her permission to name his HMS Beatty, after the British admiral at the Battle of Jutland.
FROM 860FT TO 7FT: THE WARSHIPS THAT INSPIRED THE MODELS
HMS Fencer – 1:196 scale model
The original HMS Fencer was an aircraft carrier, commissioned in February 1943
Escorted Atlantic, African and Russian convoys
Also took part in a strike on a German battleship
HMS Hood – 7ft long, 1:1,128 scale model
Original was an Admiral Class battlecruiser
Warship sunk by the Germans during World War Two
Had an overall length of 860ft
HMS Dreadnought – 6ft long, 1:196 scale model
Took Mr Ansell nine years to finish
The Dreadnought was introduced in 1906 and became an important development in naval technology
It was the first naval warship to have a uniform battery, rather than just a few guns
He added: ‘With the Dreadnought I even laid the planks on the deck one by one. It took six months just to do the deck but it looks like the real McCoy.
‘The G3 was never named because it wasn’t built. Some names were banded about but they were then put to other ships.
‘So I want to keep with naval tradition and write to the Queen to ask for permission to name it after Admiral Beatty.
‘The Navy do it when they name ships and I want to make things official. I’ll ask her if there’s something else she’d rather I called it.’
On average, a ship takes about three years to build and his hobby has cost Mr Ansell several thousands over the years.
He said: ‘Back in the 90s, my ambition was to make a 10-foot model and I got laughed at, but I kept making models bigger and bigger.
‘The next one I’m going to do is nine-foot so I think I’ve proved the doubters wrong.’
Mr Ansell belongs to a model boat display team in Portsmouth who stage battles with their ships and even use pyrotechnics, which means they have to have a health and safety team at the ready.

By CLAIRE CARTER FOR MAILONLINE

Arebus Identified by "The Bell"

The Erebus Bell has been recovered which astutely proves the ship discovered is the Arebus. In September, the wreck of one of the two ships in Franklin’s lost expedition of 1845 was located near the the Victoria Strait in Canada. As both ships in the expedition were similar sized bomb vessels, modified for exploration, it was initially unclear whether the wreck was from the HMS Terror or HMS Erebus. By early October, the wreckage had been confirmed to be from the HMS Erebus. Now divers have located the ship’s bell.

As reported by CNBC:
The bell is intact and generally in very good condition. Two embossed markings – introduced when the bronze bell was first cast – are evident on the artifact: a Royal Navy “broad arrow” indicating property of the British Government, as well as the date “1845.”


A brass bell from HMS Erebus, one of the two doomed ships from the Franklin expedition that came in search of the Northwest Passage, is now in the hands of scientists in Ottawa.

Sealed in a water-filled glass container, the bell was unveiled Thursday by Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq.

The bell was found in mid-September, shortly after the Erebus was discovered on the Arctic seabed.

The bell would have been struck every half hour both day and night, to mark the passage of time on board the vessel.

Marc-Andre Bernier, chief of Parks Canada's underwater archeology service, said he was on the boat above listening over an intercom to the divers exploring the wreck.

"At one point, all we heard was, 'I found the bell, I found the bell,'" he said.

"The objective was not to recover artifacts, but in this case here, because of the iconic symbol that a bell has … it was decided that this object should be recovered."

In addition to bearing the broad-arrow mark of the Royal Navy, the bell is emblazoned with "1845," the year the Franklin expedition began its ill-fated voyage.

The bell was wrapped underwater and sent to the lab in Ottawa for conservation treatments.

"This is the crowning achievement of an incredible, successful 2014 search campaign that has captivated Canadians and the entire world," said Aglukkaq.

The Erebus, on which it's believed that Sir John Franklin died, was lost some 168 years ago.

Bernier said several other artifacts were found around the site, including pulley blocks, ropes and two brass cannons, but they have been left there until dive teams can resume their inspection of the sunken vessel again next year.

Parks Canada scientists say they need to carefully clean the bell to remove all traces of sea salt from its surface before any other historical clues can be revealed.

The respective crews of the Erebus and its companion, HMS Terror, perished after the ships went missing in the mid-1800s.

Bernier said it's believed the ships became locked in sea ice and eventually sank as their wooden hulls became waterlogged and cracked apart.

With files from The Canadian Press