This article was published on the Marine Electronics & Communications website on 15 June 2016.
Kongsberg Maritime recently participated, using its Maritime Broadband Radio (MBR) technology, in a highly unusual and intriguing exercise in the fjord just outside Trondheim, Norway.
Four autonomous units – an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), an unmanned surface vessel (USV), an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), and a tethered relay balloon – were guided from a mother ship in various tasks. These required precise co-ordination from the command centre, and with each other. Kongsberg provided the one central element without which the operation would not have been possible – the communications system.