CROWNE 2017 Sea Trial underway at Split

CROWNE 2017 Sea Trial #1 is underway in Split, Croatia, where researchers from LABUST, and Space and Naval Warfare System Command (SPAWAR), SSC Pacific from San Diego are conducting trials from 23^rd till 28^th of October 2017. Croatian Ministry of Defence (MORH) and US Department of Defence (DoD) signed in 2017 a Coalition Warfare Program „Cooperative Unmanned Vehicles in the Maritime Environment“ (CUV-ME).

The objective of the CUV-ME project is to provide, develop, integrate, and test the hardware and software protocols necessary to advance combined operations between multiple unmanned systems, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), and Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), to enhance the navigational accuracy of UUVs, and to improve the operational safety of operators engaged in unexploded ordnance remediation and counter underwater explosive operations. A supporting project objective will be to investigate the Concept of Operations and Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures used during the CUV-ME project as a baseline for integrating this capability into future operational mine countermeasures operations and other naval warfare missions. 

With this project LABUST once again proves its capability to be involved in the most challenging type of projects. The TRL (technology readiness level) at the end of the CUV-ME project will be between 6 to 7. The CUV-ME project is a joint RDT&E effort lead by the University of Zagreb’s Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific’s (SSC PAC’s) Unmanned Maritime Vehicles.