Page 24: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2005)

24 MTR September 2005 sion. SDVT-1 effectively trained with assets from

Newport, R.I., Keyport, and Hawaii - without leaving

Hawaii. Speaking at the NDIA UMV T&E Conference,

COL William Schopfel (USMC, Ret.), ONR Research

Test Director, said the event has grown considerably over the last few years. "The initial AUV Fests normally com- mandeered about ten systems and technologies and the total numbers of participants and visitors rounded out to about 150. This one was a wee bit different. There were 18 organizations involved. Forty technologies [vehicle and in-water systems], not ten…and we spread them out over the seven range areas at Keyport-often having 12 or 13 different systems and technologies in the water simultane- ously." There were more than 450 visitors to the com- bined AUV Fest 2005 and NDIA Conference events from academia, industry, and Department of Defense with 40 unmanned vehicles and technologies tested by 18 organi- zations. "Navy labs must work even more closely with developers in industry and academia, who themselves have come to focus more closely on T&E," said Dr. Paul

Lefebvre, NWCK T&E Executive and product area direc- tor for Undersea Warfare Analysis and Assessment, during his opening remarks at the NDIA Conference. "Unmanned undersea vehicles have historically con-

Slocum Gliders, operated by Alaska Native Technologies in cooperation with the Space and Naval Warfare

Systems Command (SPAWAR), demonstrated persistent

UUV operations for mapping of ambient underwater noise conditions and collection of sound speed data, with transmission to shore for comparison with NUTEC's "ground truth" data. The Slocum gliders also demon- strated rendezvous and station-keeping with a Seaglider

UUV operated by the University of Washington's Applied

Physics Laboratory.

The Hydrographic Unmanned Survey Craft (HUSCy) USV, operated by the Naval Oceanographic Office, demon- strated capabilities for tactical data collection for shallow water hydrography / oceanography and also remote launch of a small Ranger RN-2 UUV, a demonstration conceived during AUV Fest 2005 by the two vehicle teams in the collaborative environment fostered by the

National UUV T&E Center concept.

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