Page 43: of Marine Technology Magazine (March 2011)

And what is your opinion of Brazil as a place to live?

I really like the climate, although it is very hot now, (but in France it´s snowing!) and the people, they are very friendly. I haven´t travelled very much in Brazil, only to a few state capitals, so I hope to get to know the country more in time. I really like to go to Búzios (beach town 300km northeast of the city of Rio) though, it´s a beautiful place, very nice to relax. www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 43

ECA USV

ECA´s latest military equipment innovation is the Inspector USV (Unmanned Surfce Vehicle), the vessel is an easily reconfigurable 8.2 meter speedboat, which is a plat- form capable of carrying out a wide range of missions, such as Mine warfare and Mine countermeasures (MCM), Inshore hydrographic and oceanographic ops, O&G survey,

Coastal and Port security,

Intelligence, Surveillance and

Reconnaissance (ISR), Structure and Hull inspection, Fleet training,

Naval combat and Electronic war- fare. It runs on two turbo diesel engines and hydrojets, with a maxi- mum speed of 30kts, a remote con- trol range of 30nm, and a 50cm draft, permitting it to penetrate very shallow locations. The Inspector

USV comes equipped with 360º night & day camera and may be configured to carry a range of other equipment, sensors and weapons. It also has the capability to remotely launch a K-STER Mine killer and also tow multibeam and side scan- ner, among others.