Èxit de la presentació de l'ICTINEU 3 als Estats Units*

L'equip del submarí del director de cinema James Cameron s'interessa per l'ICTINEU3


Els responsables del submarí ICTINEU 3 -primer submergible científic tripulat de Catalunya i l'Estat- ha presentat al congrés internacional Underwater Intervention 2013 (www.underwaterintervention.com), celebrat a Nova Orleans (EUA), les seves bateries d'ió-liti-polímer desenvolupades durant els últims 5 anys i que són les primeres d'aquest tipus en tot el món certificades i tolerants a la pressió. Aquestes bateries, que contenen 4 vegades més d'energia per pes i volum que les normals d'àcid plom, són compactes, funcionen sota l'aigua fins a altes profunditats i s'han convertit en les primeres a oferir una gran capacitat energètica (més de 10 KW/h) en aquest context.

La presentació internacional en primícia ha tingut un gran èxit entre els assistents experts en tecnologia submarina. En concret, l'audiència de Nova Orleans ha elogiat la quantitat i qualitat de tests que s'han realitzat per verificar la viabilitat i seguretat de les bateries, l'anàlisi de riscos i el procediment en el seu disseny. D'aquesta manera, l'empresa catalana ICTINEU Submarins ha estat la primera a nivell mundial en tenir un producte acabat d'aquestes característiques, comercialitzable, fiable, segur i certificat per a submarins tripulats, que també es pot aplicar a altres tipus de vehicles i plataformes submarines.

En el transcurs del congrés internacional, tant les bateries com el propi submarí ICTINEU 3 han aixecat moltes expectatives i interès per part de tots els participants, amb possibilitats de negoci a nivell internacional. En aquest sentit, algunes empreses i institucions ja s'han interessat pel sistema de bateries desenvolupat per ICTINEU Submarins per aplicar-lo a altres vehicles.

Admiració de l'equip de James Cameron enmig d'un programa de luxe

L'equip de l'ICTINEU 3 també ha rebut elogis tant pel seu disseny com per les seves funcionalitats, prestacions i qualitat en la construcció. De fet, el disseny català ha estat considerat com el submarí “més bonic i elegant” de la fira.  En especial, l'equip i l'enginyer en cap del James Cameron s'han interessat molt pel disseny i construcció de l'ICTINEU 3, afirmant que “és un projecte excel·lent” i que “a James Cameron li agradaria molt”.

El programa d'Underwater Intervention 2013 ha estat de luxe i ha comptat amb les següents presentacions: submarins ALVIN (EUA, 4.500m), MIR 1&2 (Rússia, 6.000m), SHINKAI 6500 (Japó, 6.500m), JIAILONG (Xina, 7.000m, que el 2012 ha iniciat les seves primeres immersions), NAUTILE (França, 6.000m), VIRGIN OCEANIC (EUA, 11.000m), DEEPSEA CHALLENGER (submarí amb el qual James Cameron va baixar a 10.989m de profunditat la passada primavera), una presentació del capità Don Walsh, que el 1960 va baixar amb el batiscaf TRIESTE a 10.916m i dues presentacions de l'ICTINEU 3, entre moltes altres.

A banda de l'equip de James Cameron, durant el congrés, els impulsors del submarí ICTINEU 3, Carme Parareda i Pere Forès, han tingut l'oportunitat de poder conversar i intercanviar impressions amb Chris Welsh (co-fundador de Virgin Oceanic) o l'esmentat capità Don Walsh, entre d'altres, els quals també han vist amb bons ulls el projecte català.

Els submarins tripulats, un sector a l'alça

En el congrés d'enguany, de referència mundial en tecnologia submarina, s'ha pogut constatar clarament que els submarins tripulats són un sector amb fort creixement ja que la participació i número d'assistents en la secció de submarins tripulats (que aquest any celebrava la desena edició) s'ha duplicat respecte les anteriors, superant de molt la participació en les altres seccions (vehicles autònoms, submarinistes professionals...).  Entre operadors i constructors, hi han estat representats més de 57 submarins civils.

S'han presentat els últims resultats dels submarins acabats de construir enguany, la majoria per a molta profunditat. També s'ha anunciat l'inici de la construcció d'almenys 11 submarins nous a tot el món per aquest 2013.

Dins del mateix marc del congrés internacional, ha tingut lloc també la reunió anual del comitè de submarins tripulats de la Marine Tecnology Societry (MTS) amb la representació dels centres oceanogràfics més importants del món: Karen Kohanovich de la NOAA (EUA), Weicheng Cui del China Ship Scientific Research Centerm (Xina), Itaru Kawama de JAMSTEC (Japó), Anatoly Sagalavich del P. P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (Rússia). En aquesta trobada hi han assistit autèntiques autoritats del sector, com l'esmentat Don Walsh, que el 1960 va baixar a la fosa de les Marianes a 10.916m de profunditat; Robert Surma i Harald Pauli, vicepresident i cap respectivament del departament de tecnologia submarina de la certificadora Germanischer Lloyd; i empreses constructores i operadores de submarins tripulats. En aquest cas, Catalunya i l'Estat espanyol han quedat representats per Carme Parareda i Pere Forès, de l'Associació Institut ICTINEU - Centre Català de Recerca Submarina.

Per últim, cal destacar que s'han fet diverses presentacions i taules rodones focalitzades en la seguretat i la certificació, de la mà de les entitats de certificació Germanisher Lloyd, ABS, NAVSEA, i dels delegats responsables de les forces especials i comandaments de l'armada dels Estats Units.

CONTACTE DE PREMSA:
Albert Riera
comunicacio@ictineu.net
661 108 175

ANNEX INFORMATIU adjuntat a sota
IMATGES: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41932531/ICTINEU3_Imatges_Press.rar

www.ictineu.net

* Felicitem a l'equip del projecte ICTINEU per la seva tasca, i els animem a seguir endavant. Sens dubte, Catalunya té talent, només cal posar-hi els mitjans.

This Simple Ship Could Let the Chinese Navy Circle the Globe*

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy now has an aircraft carrier, new jet fighters to fly off the flattop and even new submarines and guided-missile destroyers able to protect the refurbished Soviet carrier. And with the successful first sea trials of two new, 590-foot-long fleet oilers — tanker ships designed to keep other vessels fueled, or “replenished,” while sailing long distance — the PLAN could soon be able to deploy all this new hardware beyond coastal waters.

“Replenishment vessel construction rate will be a particularly revealing barometer of the PLAN’s future expeditionary intentions,” wrote Andrew Erickson, an analyst at the U.S. Naval War College. The more new oilers, the farther China will be able to send its new capital ships. Without underway replenishment, most naval vessels can travel only a few thousand miles; with fuel top-offs, they can circle the globe.

The latest, upgraded Qiandaohu-class oilers, also known as Type 903s, were launched at a shipyards in Guangzhou and Shanghai last spring. After additional work, the tankers began sea trials in the China Seas, testing out the vessels’ mechanical systems plus the storage tanks, valves, hoses and other gear for refueling other ships at sea. This week the first of the new Qiandaohus reportedly completed her trials, clearing her for frontline use.

When it comes to prepping new naval vessels for service, nine months is not a long time. Many U.S. vessels take years to go from launch through trials to commissioning. One U.S.-based Chinese military analyst, who blogs under the pseudonym “Coatepeque,” calls the oilers’ speedy trials “impressive.”

“The China navy must be needing those new milk cows bad,” Coatepeque wrote.

He’s not wrong. Prior to the introduction of the new Type 903s, the PLA Navy possessed just a handful of smaller oilers, including refurbished Soviet vessels and two of an earlier version of the Qiandaohu class: just five tankers in total to support a combat fleet numbering no fewer than 75 major warships, including frigates, destroyers, amphibious assault ships and the lone carrier. The U.S., by contrast, possesses more than 30 underway replenishment ships — all of them larger than China’s oilers — to support around 130 large surface warships.

Outwardly similar to commercial tanker ships, the military oilers are deceptively simple vessels. Their basic equipment hasn’t changed much in a century, but the techniques for using oilers are some of the most difficult to master in any navy.

To fuel up another ship, the oiler and the receiving vessel must match speeds and close within a few score yards of each other. Crews use special guns to launch lines between the vessels, then use the lines to haul across fuel hoses — all while the ships continue sailing. “It takes a crew adhering to strict safety practices to make an underway replenishment happen without incident,” according to Military Sealift Command, which operates U.S. oilers.

The shortage of oilers (referred to as “AORs” in military shorthand) and likewise the PLAN’s inexperience operating such ships, has imposed serious limitations on China’s ability to deploy naval forces beyond the China Seas. Regular counter-piracy patrols in the Indian Ocean plus the occasional exercise near Japan has stretched the oiler fleet beyond its capacity. “With only five AOR in its orbat, it can barely keep up,” Coatepeque wrote of the Chinese navy.

With the existing AOR fleet tapped out, the new carrier Liaoning would have forced Beijing to make a hard choice: keep the flattop in home waters or cut either the counter-piracy patrols or the long-range training cruises.

By the same token, the two new Type 903s will give the Chinese Communist Party options. Provided the carrier, her planes, escorts and other supporting forces function as advertised — and those are big ifs — China now has a large, potentially powerful warship that, with oiler support, can sail thousands of miles away to fly the flag, or fight a war.

*Notícia publicada a Wired. Com hem dit altres vegades, la logísitca, els "no-sexy ships" són essencials per mesurar la força real d'una flota.

Russian Navy Holds Syria Exercises*

MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti) - Ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and Baltic Fleets are to start exercises off the coast of Syria the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.

"A tactical group of Black Sea Fleet warships headed by the cruiser Moskva will undertake exercises in the eastern sector of the Mediterranean Sea," the Ministry said. "The tanker Ivan Bubnov has fuelled the ships and emergency drills have been carried out. On January 10 the tanker filled its fuel and water tanks and food stores at the Cyprus port of Larnaka."

A Baltic Fleet group consisting of the patrol vessel Yaroslav Mudry and tanker Lena will dock at Valetta on Malta for storing and to allow the crew to rest, the Ministry said. The ships will then head for the eastern Mediterranean, where the two ships will practice stores transfer at sea in day and night and the Yaroslav Mudry will carry out anti-submarine warfare drills.

Meanwhile the navy's large frigate Severomorsk will visit the Greek port of Suda during an anti-piracy mission to the Gulf of Aden from January 14-18. "Russian Naval Infantry soldiers will visit a NATO training center to get additional training" during the visit, the Ministry said.

The Russian Navy maintains a small base at Tartus on Syria's Mediterranean coast. Syria is currently locked in a civil war between government forces and rebels that the UN estimates has cost the lives of at least 30,000 people, while other estimates put the death toll at around twice that number.

* Notícia publicada a RIA Novosti. Malgrat que el focus de l'actualitat s'ha desplaçat cap a Mali, no hem de perdre de vista els moviments russos a la Mediterrània.

ACTUV - stalking silent submarines*

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has unveiled its vision for a DARPA-sponsored programme to develop an unmanned vessel for long-duration tracking of even the quietest enemy submarines. Berenice Baker looks into the company's autonomous trimaran design, which can find and follow a target for up to 90 days, continuously relaying information to an anti-submarine warfare fleet commander.

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SAIC's solution for the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) programme is an autonomous trimaran unmanned surface vessel (USV) that can scan the oceans for enemy submarines during missions that can last up to 90 days, detecting even diesel-electric boats which are near-silent when moving slowly.

Requiring little human interaction, ACTUV can be remotely piloted when required for actions such as leaving a harbour. Otherwise a single operator, who can control several ACTUVs, would monitor activity from a communications centre and issue infrequent commands based on the information ACTUV transmits.

 

The on-board autonomy framework provides instantaneous transition from remote control to autonomous control and back again as required, while monitoring its surroundings and responding to mission instructions and priorities.

At sea, ACTUV shifts to fully-autonomous operation and engages its full suite of instrumentation and sensors to keep track of everything around it. Using collected data and sophisticated algorithms, ACTUV can track and classify other vessels and objects, infer the intent of any craft it tracks and evaluate and adjust quickly to developing circumstances. It carries out periodic low-bandwidth reporting of health and equipment status and the status of any contacts of interest to the command post.

Arriving at a target location, the ACTUV automatically adjusts its mission plan based on the current weather, geographical factors and external updates from the US Navy's Joint Task Force Commander's Navy Theatres and Strike Groups ASW architecture.

The potential sensor suite for ACTUV could include electro-optics, long-range and short-range radar, and LIDAR, which together would enable it to detect, localise, track and classify a target in all weather and visibility conditions up to sea state five (rough). ACTUV is survivable in conditions up to sea state seven, though some mission capabilities may be degraded.

Detecting and classifying a target

The ACTUV lingers in its loiter box until it receives tracking and signalling data from the ASW commander directing it to engage a target enemy submarine.

As it approaches, it uses long-range mid-frequency active-passive sonar to determine the approximate location of the target. It then uses high-frequency sonars with overlapping coverage to maximise tracking precision, and a towed field magnetometer array to provide additional information about target activity.
As the target submarine moves, the ACTUV establishes a close-in track and matches its trajectory, using a very high-frequency sonar to make an acoustic image of the target to classify it, passing this information to the ASW commander. The commander can then decide whether to order the ASW group to engage the target, or keep the ACTUV following in the hope that the submarine captain will realise that it cannot shake it off and return, demoralised, to port.

At the end of its mission, ACTUV returns to its home harbour, self-reporting its condition en route so minimal preventative maintenance can be carried out.

SAIC's design for the ACTUV is fully modular, with flexible mission payloads enabling it to be used for a range of tasks, including general marine intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR); surveillance towed array sensor system (SURTASS) surrogate; fleet overwatch and support; UUV / UAV launch and recovery; communications gateway and support provision and littoral re-supply.

* Article publicat a Naval Technology.  Interessant sistema de vigilància per operacions anti-submarines.