Overview
This research note talks about underwater search and recovery which refers to the investigation, rescue, and salvage of objects with high value (eg. aircraft black boxes, underwater vehicles, and crashed vehicles) that are lost on the seabed. The research notes state that the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has become the center of intense global attention for various reasons. It states that the IOR contains two third of the world’s proven oil reserves, one-third of the world’s natural gas, 90% of the world’s diamond, and 60% of the world’s uranium.
The research note states that no environment is more dangerous and extreme than the deep ocean/sea. Intense cold, tremendous pressures, and the total absence of light combine to make the deep sea the most difficult region for mankind. Hence for effective and efficient capability and capacity building in the UWSAR domain technology plays a very important role. The entire process of UWSAR has multiple dimensions and the sequence of steps to be taken needs to be understood.
The research note also encompasses various challenges and future scope to the UWSAR domain.
Key highlights
- The IOR contains two-thirds of the world’s proven oil reserves, one-third of the world’s natural gas, 90% of the world’s diamonds, 60% of the world’s uranium, and 40% of the world’s gold, making it potentially the single largest area of exploitable wealth in the world.
- The entire process of UWSAR has multiple dimensions and the sequence of steps to be taken needs to be understood.
- The process of location of the distressed vehicle can be done by the use of different techniques depending on the type of distressed object.
- An obvious advantage of conducting underwater searches for aircraft black boxes is that such objects are equipped with underwater positioning beacons, whose acoustic signals can be picked up by the shipboard acoustic positioning system.
- A shipboard sonar system can be used to search for the signals of underwater objects carrying acoustic beams.
- Side-scan sonar is a very efficient technique for getting acoustic images of the sea bed. Side-scan sonar on an underwater vehicle can reach a distance of tens of meters from the sea bottom.
- The existing deep-sea recovery and salvage system mainly depends on operational Remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) and human-occupied vehicles (HOVs).
- If an object weighing several tons needs to be recovered, then composite buoyant fiber ropes may be needed.
- There is high flow of water bodies due to concentration of annual monsoon in one quarter of the year causing excessive siltation. Thus, sediment deposition threatens the sustainability from both onsite and off site damages causing enormous costs to the national economy.
Key recommendations
- Satellite communication – ADS-B technology: The flights will be tracked using an industry-wide standard known as “automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast” or ADS-B.
- If the weight of the wreck to be salvaged is very high, a neutral-buoyancy composite fiber rope may be needed.
- If a 3D real-time imaging sonar is installed on the ROV/HOV, the search time can be greatly reduced.
- TV-grab is a visual grab sampler that combines the continuous observation of seabed images with a grab sampler.
“No environment is more dangerous and extreme than the deep ocean/sea. Intense cold, tremendous pressures, and the total absence of light combine to make the deep sea the most difficult region for mankind. Hence for effective and efficient capability and capacity building in the UWSAR domain technology plays a very important role.”
