With investment into new, multi-role naval vessels and submarines increasing worldwide, and projections on the Blue Economy suggesting its worth at $2.4 trillion per year, now is an opportune moment to reflect on the utility of oceanographic survey vessels and other surveying capabilities. Moreover, as the international community looks to develop policy frameworks that deal with mass ecological degradation and the threat of climate change, it is vital that we begin to improve our knowledge of the ocean floor.
The many conferences and expos on the subject of oceanographic and hydrographic survey vessels are overwhelmingly scientific, and not designed to engage policy and military audiences. Having understood this need for cross-sector engagement between industry, policy and naval stakeholders, Defence IQ has developed an event that places regional and hemispheric cooperation at the heart of its agenda, with senior commanders attending to discuss current OSV design requirements, acquisition challenges, and operational case-studies.
What Navies, Coast Guards and National Hydrographic Offices can learn from OSV 2017:
• Support Naval Mission Planning and Operations: Understand the unique benefits that a survey capability offers your nation’s navy or coast guard and recognise the pros and cons of different ship designs and how they impact build, operational and maintenance costs so that you can build a an effective case for procurement
• Force Multiplier: Learn how unmanned autonomous vehicles can remove the man-power burden from commanders and buttress existing survey missions with a cheaper and more expansive prediction of currents, density and sea states and tides, ensuring effective and safe navigation of waters in future missions
• Prolong the Life of Your Fleet: Discover how to reduce the costs of maintenance and improve fuel efficiency through new technology upgrades in propulsion so that your fleet can operate for longer and in the most austere environments
• Harness the power of your Blue Economy: Determine what survey capabilities you require for your fleet and better manage, protect and extract the enormous ocean resources at your disposal
• Achieving Real-time Response: Investigate which technologies are needed ship-to-shore for a quicker processing, exploitation and dissemination of vital bathymetric and geospatial data so that your fleet can respond in real time to weather changes, operational threat or navigational challenges