Ocean Business – March 2019
Incubator Seeks Ocean Tech Companies
The Maritime Alliance has openings in its San Diego-based BlueTech Incubator, which pairs companies with mentors and establishes monthly goals over a six-month period to foster the development of science-based ocean and water/wastewater tech companies. Opportunities include space for three companies at the San Diego location and several others off site. Interested companies can apply at bluetechincubator.org.
Profiling-Floats Deal Continues for US Navy
Teledyne Webb Research has received an order for autonomous profiling floats from the Naval Oceanographic Office. The contract includes the APEX profiling float, with optional air-deployment capability and APEX repair services. The contract runs for up to three years, with an estimated total of $4.4 million. Teledyne Marine has been providing APEX floats to the Naval Oceanographic Office since 1998.
iXblue Adds North American Office
iXblue opened a new office dedicated to commercial activities in the North American region. Based out of Denver, Colorado, the new local team of engineers will provide enhanced R&D, sales and support. iXblue has a global workforce of 600 people doing business in more than 40 countries to provide tools for civil and defense customers working in sea, land and space operations.
Canadian Harbor Modified to Eliminate Swell
The small fishing harbor of Lower Sandy Point near the southern tip of Nova Scotia was modified to reduce the agitating effects of swell. Breakwaters were added, nearly enclosing the harbor. The resulting structure successfully reduced the swell, and, several times each year, in the presence of specific atmospheric forcing, put the harbor at near resonance.
Pipeline Inspected Under San Joaquin River
A Deep Ocean Engineering Phantom T4-H ROV successfully completed a series of pipeline inspections on sections of the Mokelumne Aqueduct Raw Water Pipeline. The system was outfitted with a pipe-profiling sonar and three video cameras. The ROV traversed three, nearly 1,000-ft.-long, 8-ft.-diameter, inverted siphon pipelines running under the San Joaquin River. These pipelines provide 90 percent of the water supply for the East Bay Municipal Utility District.
Pressure Testing for Extreme Cold, Extreme Depth
A precision-testing capability for deep submergence connectors and cable assemblies—an extreme-low-temperature, extreme-depth testing system—allows more than 48 hr. of continuous testing of connectors and cable assemblies at 6 km in a controlled 2° C (±1° C) environment. The cold hydrostatic pressure testing provides automated, programmable multiple pressure cycles with real-time data recording of electrical and optical testing and digital output of pressure and temperature data.
UUV Procurement Gets Easier
L3 OceanServer was granted a five-year general services administration (GSA) schedule for its Iver3 UUV. The GSA schedule gives registered government agencies a path to procure Iver3 UUVs using pre-established pricing and terms and conditions. The Iver UUV is a commercial product built with warfighter-driven attributes. It features longer run times and precise navigational accuracy, enabling long ingress/egress missions that provide greater standoff distances and increased mission safety.
$4 Billion in Port Maintenance Needed
A recent report by the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) identified nearly $4 billion in crucial port and supply chain security needs over the next 10 years. “The State of Freight IV” is the fourth report in as many years conducted by AAPA to highlight the needs of America’s deep-draft commercial public ports to effectively move goods into and out of their facilities by land and water. This latest report recommends refocusing the FEMA Port Security Grant Program (PSGP) to better meet the security infrastructure needs of publicly owned commercial seaports and related maritime operations.
Metal Shark Delivers Patrol Boats to Australia
Four new high-speed patrol boats from Metal Shark have entered service with the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard (DCCG) on the island of Aruba. The vessels were commissioned into service with a ceremony in January 2019 at DCCG’s Station Aruba in the district of Savaneta on Aruba’s southeast coast. The boats were acquired by the Dutch Ministry of Defense to bolster its capabilities across the Caribbean. In all, the DCCG will operate 12 Metal Sharks in the territorial waters of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten and Saba.
Iridium Satellite System is Operational
The final six payloads for a second-generation constellation, exactView RT, are now operational, which completes the roll out of world’s first global, real-time satellite-AIS service. exactView RT consists of 58 operational payloads and seven orbital spares that were designed and built by Harris Corp. and are hosted on board the Iridium NEXT constellation of satellites. The Iridium NEXT satellites were deployed over a series of eight successful launches completed in less than two years and are the result of Iridium’s approximately $3 billion investment to replace its original satellite system.
A 150-Year-Old Technology for Cleaning Ballast
BAWAT is on the verge of achieving full U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) approval for its pasteurization-based ballast water management system using a 150-year-old technological process. BAWAT’s system—which is built from common components, utilizes no chemicals or filters and works simply by heating ballast water—has passed all USCG land-based tests and has only one shipboard test left to complete. The test is scheduled for April in the waters of Port Klang, Malaysia, and the Mekong River estuary, Vietnam.
Solar-Electric Sewage Pump-out Boat Delivered
Torqeedo has supplied an integrated electric propulsion system for a full-size solar-electric sewage pump-out boat, which was recently delivered to the township of Branford, Connecticut. The 25-ft. aluminum boat was built for the East Shore District Health Department by Pilot’s Point Marina in Westbrook to provide free sewage pump-out service for boats, preventing the discharge of untreated human waste into the area’s waterways.
Lithium-ion Battery System for Navy Prototype
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has been awarded a contract from Advanced Technology International to develop and demonstrate a prototype lithium-ion fault tolerant (LiFT) battery system for the U.S. Navy’s prototype “Snakehead” large-displacement unmanned undersea vehicle (LDUUV). The LiFT battery system will power the LDUUV’s propulsion and support systems. The Snakehead LDUUV is intended to increase endurance, range and payload-hosting capabilities to support a variety of future mission and ops requirements.
FLS Sonar for Exploration Yacht
The FarSounder-1000 3D forward-looking sonar (FLS) has been selected by the OceanX exploration team to help provide safe passage for Alucia2, their new 85.3-m research and exploration yacht. With the FLS, operators of the vessel will be able to view a true underwater 3D image ahead of the ship up to 1,000 m. The sonar will assist in the prevention of collisions and groundings as the OceanX team explores unknown parts of the ocean.
Canadian Navy Places its Biggest Ship Order
The Royal Canadian Navy has contracted Lockheed Martin, BAE and Irving Shipbuilding for its next-generation frigate. It is a $45 billion contract including 15 ships, possibly the largest contract to date by the Canadian government.
According to MAREX, the design is based on BAE’s Type 26 frigate currently under construction, and Lockheed may pull ideas from a frigate variant of the U.S. Navy’s FFG(X) contract and its involvement in the Freedom-class littoral combat ship building consortium.
Georgia Port Launches Big Ship Plan
The Georgia Ports Authority Big Berth/Big Ship program will allow the Port of Savannah to simultaneously handle six 14,000-TEU vessels by 2024. The January 2019 flow through the port was 433,975 TEUs, a 28 percent increase over the previous year. The port authority plans to add another 21 Neo-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes, replacing 14 of its older models to bring the total fleet to 37. Dock upgrades are already underway to support the new, larger machines.