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Comment by erinaceousjones | Hacker News Reader

As someone who works in oceanography: it's very sad that the first and very animated comment thread about these USVs is to do with naval warfare. Like, goddamn, it's ALWAYS "ooooo how do we apply this to naval warfare!!!"

Just let me strap a multibeam and some deep water towed chemical sensors to it and leave me in peace.

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If it makes you feel any better, I am sure a lot of people are also considering the possibilities of using these to smuggle drugs.

I guess it's on everybodys mind due to the war in Ukraine: They sunk 1/3rd of the Russian Black Sea fleet with drones, without having a real navy of their own anymore. Is there a good overview of civilian applications so far?

Also, what chemical sensors are you talking about? I am currently building a small buoy for data logging on sweetwater lakes and would be curious what chemical sensors I could include :)

They probably aren't talking about anything affordable by hobbyists.

Have a look at these though! https://atlas-scientific.com/

Thanks, those look super interesting!

Not to defend Russia, but rather to battle hyperbole: Ukraine temporarily disabled those ships, and I think it's debatable how we're counting "one third" of the black sea fleet. Obligatory Putin sucks and should jump in a lake

Posted [0] on March 6th sounds like significantly more than temporarily disabled

   Ukraine’s military on Tuesday claimed another successful attack on a Russian warship, marking the latest in a string of naval defeats for Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet that Kyiv says has reduced its numbers by more than a third since the start of the war.

  The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said maritime drones operated by its Group 13 special unit struck and sank the 1,300-ton Russian patrol ship Sergei Kotov in the Black Sea, near the Kerch Strait that separates occupied Crimea from the coast of southwest Russia.

  “As a result of the strike by Magura V5 maritime drones, the Russian ship Project 22160 ‘Sergei Kotov’ sustained damage to the stern, starboard and port sides,” sparking a fire aboard the vessel, a statement said. The military later confirmed the ship had sunk.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/05/europe/russian-warship-destro...

My point is that I haven't heard of any instance of a ship being irreparably damaged. They were of course taken out of commission and had to be towed back

The quote from GP comment literally says the ship sunk????

Any basic search will provide you with examples of Russian ships headed to Davy Jones locker, but here's a nice satellite image of one for your reference. Fortunately, they didn't have to tow this landing ship very far as it was already in port.[0]

[0]https://news.usni.org/2022/03/25/satellite-images-confirm-ru...

Then you clearly haven't been paying attention. For example, this video shows Feb 1 attack on corvette Ivanovets. Ukrainians drove one naval drone after another into the ship until its ammo exploded and it sank stern first, all captured on video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHFlqgCyElo

My guess would be that the chemical sensors generally used are those looking for pollution and runoffs, including oxygen levels. It is important to keep track of water quality in harbors, and dead zones near coasts (and the Baltic ocean).

I am not aware however if mapping ever get combined with environmental studies.

SEA-KIT was acquired by Fugro last year (https://www.fugro.com/news/business-news/2023/fugro-gains-fu...). So in this case: definitely more multibeam (nothing towed although there is an ROV) and less warfare.

I work for usv company. Most of the interest we receive for boats is either multibeam work or illegal fishing enforcement in marine protected areas. We nearly ended up doing some naval work but there was a large internal backlash and the contract was turned down.

When you look at the defense budgets of many countries, it becomes almost impossible to make a viable business plan without the military as a customer. Plus, if the military and luxury markets allow you to provide your product/services to the academia and research (which typically have little funding), so much the better.

Not saying I like how we spend so much on warfare, just being a realist.

This. Boats are expensive. Operating them is expensive. Keeping the corrosion off the bottom is expensive. Military/Public Sector funds help cover those costs plus the R&D to build new ones. Luxury market is pretty saturated with cat/tri designs and solar paneled everything because they want to live on it.

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