SAIC Wins Contract for ACTUV Program
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded SAIC Inc. (McLean, Virginia) a prime contract for the Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program to build and test a prototype unmanned autonomous surface vessel.

The $58 million contract provides a three-year period for program phases two and three, with a $1 million 18-month option for phase four. SAIC will provide a final design and production plan for the ACTUV prototype in phase two, construct the prototype in phase three and complete government testing in phase four.

Work will be performed primarily in Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Mississippi, California, Washington, Rhode Island and Oregon.

The ACTUV program aims to develop an unmanned autonomous surface vessel with the ability to track a quiet diesel-electric submarine overtly for months over thousands of kilometers, with minimal human input. SAIC provided conceptual design services in phase one of the program, creating a trimaran solution.

Caption: An artist's concept of the ACTUV tracking a submarine.

Source: SAIC press release

Reef Subsea's Q1000 Trenching ROV Completes Tests
Reef Subsea Power & Umbilical's (Richmond, England) Q1000 trencher has successfully finished offshore trials, after being tested in multiple conditions with all system functions operating satisfactorily. The Q1000 was mobilized on the Reef Despina in late October at the Port of Sunderland (Newcastle upon Tyne, England).

The trencher was delivered to Reef Subsea Power & Umbilical, following 10 months of design and build in collaboration with manufacturer Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd., based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

The Q1000 is a modern free-flying ROV jet trencher, which can operate in water depths up to 2,000 meters and in a variety of soil conditions. The trencher has 1,000 horsepower installed and is suited to the burial of rigid and flexible pipelines, umbilicals and cables to 3 meters trench depth.

Caption: The Q1000 Trench ROV on board the Reef Despina.

Source: Reef Subsea Power & Umbilical press release

LinkQuest Delivers TrackLink for Autosub6000 AUV
LinkQuest Inc. (San Diego, California) has delivered its third TrackLink 10000 ultralong-range ultrashort baseline (USBL) acoustic tracking system with integrated acoustic modem function to the National Oceanography Centre in the U.K., the company announced last Friday.

The TrackLink will support the positioning and tracking of the center's Autosub6000 AUV.

The TrackLink 10000 system is capable of reaching a range of 11,000 meters using a directional transponder and a range of 7,000 meters using an omnidirectional transponder. The acoustic modem function is fully integrated with the USBL tracking function to avoid the typical acoustic interference between communication and positioning systems.

Caption: The TrackLink 10000 USBL acoustic tracking system.

Source: LinkQuest press release

FET Sells Two Mojave ROVs to Consulting Firm
Forum Energy Technologies Inc. (FET), based in Houston, Texas, will supply two Sub-Atlantic Mojave ROV systems to Cummings Consulting Inc. (Defuniak Springs, Florida).

The Mojave systems, capable of reaching depths of 300 meters, will be deployed for assessment analysis immediately off the coast of Florida, FET announced on Tuesday.

Under the contract, FET will equip both ROVs with tooling systems such as electric winches, touch-screen control monitors, sub-can control systems, sonar, and color and monochrome cameras. Also included are two three-function manipulators and FET's VisualSoft data capture software.

Caption: The Mojave ROV.

Source: Forum Energy Technologies Inc. press release

Swathe Services Hires New Marketing Coordinator
Swathe Services has hired Chloe Tidy (pictured), as its new marketing and logistics coordinator. She will take over from Claire Manley. Tidy received her bachelor's in geography last year and completed a master’s in business and management. She has studied French, gaining interpreting and translation skills, and worked on many digital marketing campaigns.

Source: Swathe Services press release

Sea Tech Survey: How Was Business in 2012?
Did your company have record sales this year? Was a certain market area booming while another fizzled?

Sea Technology magazine wants to know.

Your answers, which will be kept anonymous and confidential, will be used in the annual Firing Line Report article to be published in our January 2013 issue. This report summarizes the climate for the oceanographic/marine markets in 2012.

The anonymous questionnaire of 10 questions, which will take only a few minutes to fill out, is available online here.

Industry input was invaluable in putting this year's Firing Line Report together, and we greatly appreciate your feedback for the 2013 edition.

We look forward to hearing from you.
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