National Oceanography Centre to Work with Royal Navy
The National Oceanography Centre, UK, and the Royal Navy have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enable cooperation on a variety of activities relating to marine autonomous systems with a particular focus on gliders. The Royal Navy does not currently have a mature glider capability, so working with the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) will provide the basis for trialling gliders and understanding how they can best be used.
Currently the NOC has the largest marine autonomous systems fleet for science in Europe, and with recent acquisitions the NOC also operate by far the largest glider fleet in Europe for which they continue to develop novel sensors and applications.
The NOC has some very unique capabilities, such as Autosub Long Range which is designed for operations to a depth of 6,000m, with a range up to 6,000km and deployed for periods up to six months.
In parallel, the NOC will continue to work with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) which is contributing funding for a number of research and development projects related to marine autonomous systems, including the NOC’s Long Endurance Marine Unmanned Surface Vehicle project.
