An underwater drone, usually used for hull inspections of shipping and offshore vessels, will now help the Norwegian Armed Forces during the marine salvage operations of the wrecked frigate KNM Helge Ingstad.
The KNM Helge Ingstad was returning from NATO military exercises on 8 November 2018 and the Maltese-flagged oil tanker ‘Sola TS’ in Hjeltefjorden had earlier left Equinor’s Sture oil shipment terminal carrying a cargo of crude oil, when they collided at the Sture terminal. The tanker suffered minor damage and there was no injury or oil spill reported.
Following, Blueye Robotics, a Trondheim-based technology company, launched two ‘Blueye Pioneer’ underwater drones to the Norwegian Armed Forces. The drone was used by the Norwegian Armed Forces during the salvage operations of the wrecked ‘KNM Helge Ingstad’, despite its usual use on hull inspections.
Moreover, the drone is easy to manoeuvre and can inspect the torpedo room and other major spaces in the frigate that up to now were approachable. What’s more, the drone is handy, so it’s used by the armed forces crew. They will be in charge of handling it during the salvage operation. Also, the underwater drone is operated via a smartphone or a tablet, which then receives live video through a thin umbilical cable to the surface and wirelessly to the smartphone/tablet.
Although it has a small size, it is equipped with thrusters and it can dive to 150 metres.
Erik Dyrkoren, CEO of Blueye Robotics, addressed that:
When the Armed Forces calls, you of course stand to attention. They want to utilise our drones because they can transmit live, HD-quality video feed to operators on the surface. At the same time, our drone measures only 45 x 25 x 35 centimetres and weighs only nine kilos. Hence, it will gain access to spaces that other underwater equipment cannot enter
