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.
Three engineers are sitting in a car at the top of a bif hill. As they roll downward, the brakes fail, the engine cuts out, and the car careens faster and faster, until the wheels literally fall off. The car simply disintegrates around them.
At the bottom of the hill, surrounded by the wreckage of the car, the mechanical engineer says “I think I can redesign the braking and steering systems to make such an extreme breakdown very unlikely to happen again.”
The civil engineer nods, and says “I can redesign the hill itself to prevent such a recurrence.”
The software engineer says “Let’s put the car back together and push it back to the top to see if it happens again!”
I are an engineer, two! ;-P
There is no ALLNAV list. Possible job opportunity there.
Wall-E?
Probably an o-ring failure when they were prepped. I’m sure the QA for those vehicles will have his paperwork scrutinized.
I bet someone rigged them to deliberately go inactive and follow a preset course to a certain position and wait for their new owners to come buy to finalize the deal.
Its either the Chinese, the Russians or possibly another country yet that wants a technical “jump” upon American superiority.
MISSING NAVAL UNDERWATER VEHICLE
Have you seen me?
Call: (757) 443-9821 Reward....
Perhaps they should try putting their pics on milk cartons.............
The dreaded “Hampton Roads Triangle” strikes again...
Virginia PilotOnline, 10 June 2010
Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit 1 from San Diego was operating 13 UUVs on Sunday around Thimble Shoals Channel as part of a military exercise when it lost communication with four of the devices.
Each vehicle, called a REMUS Mark 18, is 5 feet long, weighs 80 pounds and looks like a torpedo. They are mostly black with bright orange rubber pieces.
Together, the four UUVs cost about $1 million, said Lt. Cmdr. John Schilling, executive officer of the unit.
Self-propelled and equipped with a camera and side-scanning sonar, the UUV searches for mines and sends sonar snippets back to a computer for analysis. If contact is lost, it cannot transmit its location.
Schilling said the four missing devices were operating together near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel when they stopped transmitting data.
"Sometimes glitches occur and you lose assets," Schilling said.
The Navy has been searching for the missing equipment - which is not hazardous, Schilling said. Navy dolphins taking part in the exercise were put on the case, and teams in small boats and helicopters have been searching.
Even if the search ends without success, there's a chance the vehicles will turn up.
"They tend to rise to the surface and wash ashore," Schilling said.
Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com
(I hate it when you lose your assets.)
“I bet someone rigged them to deliberately go inactive and follow a preset course to a certain position...”
BINGO!!!And someone else understands that ...which is why the mickey-mouse “have you seen my submarine” posters in the neighborhood....
Navy can’t find its assets.......................
Thanks for the update
Thanks for the update.
Although I suppose that's better than having Obama kick your assets...
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