The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) announced on 8 November that its Maritime Geospatial Warfare Unit recently deployed for the first time a new type of small survey craft from its Canberra-class landing helicopter dock (LHD) amphibious assault ship HMAS Adelaide .
The RAN announced on 8 November that its Maritime Geospatial Warfare Unit recently deployed for the first time a new type of small survey craft (foreground) from its Canberra-class amphibious assault ship HMAS Adelaide (background) as part of Exercise ‘Sea Wader 2020’.
The RAN said the vessel is “part of a range of new capabilities, including a fly-away survey kit and the Remus 100S autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)”, which is aimed at modernising the collection and processing of geospatial data by the service’s hydrographers.
The new survey vessel will provide the geospatial survey teams a new approach to rapid environmental assessment and allow them to provide products to support military operations, including humanitarian aid and disaster response (HADR), noted the RAN.
The service added that Polaris is equipped with “a range of geospatial technologies including a multi-beam echo sounder, side-scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler, and the ability to deploy its own AUV”.
Lieutenant Commander Paul Clark, Operations Officer Maritime Geospatial Warfare Unit, said Polaris is expected to give RAN teams improved capability in several areas.
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