On the evening of the 28^th March Vicky and I attended the UDWG 2012 industry reception.  The event was held at HMS Collingwood in Fareham in Hampshire.  The industry reception was being held in the main hallway of the training building with delegates from many NATO and non-NATO countries attending.

We set up our stand along side the guys from Divex and waited for the delegates to arrive with other industry representatives.  Many of the industry representatives I had already met at either the SMERWG conferences or at SAMAP  last year, so I was feeling quite at home when the conference ended for the day and the delegates arrived.   It is always good to meet with clients and I was very happy to meet with so many delegates, indeed  at one stage we seemed to be swamped at the Analox stand. I had the chance to engage in some very in-depth and challenging conversations with delegates such as CDR Arkadiusz Wozniak  from the Polish Navy, OF-2 Armands Ronis from the Latvian Navy and Lt Pedro Valverde from the Spanish Navy.  I must say gentlemen your English is much better than my Polish, Latvian or Spanish will ever be.

The one fact that I managed to very quickly glean for all of the people I spoke with was that they either had used or they owned Analox diving analysers and that the equipment Analox provided was in their opinion always of a very high quality.   It is all ways good to be told by your clients that they like your products.

On the Analox stand we were displaying some of our standard products such as the ATA Pro, the O2EII and the EII CO launched last year.  This year we also had the new ACG and the SDA system.  The colour displays were never off and they were without doubt the stars of the Analox stand with visitors all keen to take information away.

The new ACG for Analox is the first analyser of it’s type and utilises the Analox MIR and MEC sensor blocks making it a fully modular system able to be fully field maintained by the user.  A fact that was not wasted on those delegates who visited the AMS stand

I certainly left the event at the end of the evening having met with some very grateful clients who were genuinely impressed with the latest products in the Analox Military Systems range. Drew Skinner

Indian Navy to put two Russian nuclear submarines in service soon

India will operate two nuclear powered submarines soon according to official Russian news agency Rianovosti, as it inducts the Russian Nerpa and launches the indigenous INS Arihant, Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

Read the full story.

In a world where Internet and Smartphone app startup companies are a dime-a-dozen, it’s not every day that you see a startup that makes submarines. And definitely not one that is run by one man, from his basement. Yet, that’s exactly what 37-year-old Zhang Wuyi has been doing after he was laid off from his job in a textile machine factory.

Wuyi, from China’s Hubei province, builds mini submarines in a makeshift workspace in the basement of a disused building. When he started off, he worked alone. Today, he has three orders under his belt and also employs ten workers. His submarine models are capable of diving up to 30 meters under sea level and travel at 20 kmph for 10 hours. They can seat two people and also contain oxygen tanks and video cameras. The walls are made of wrought iron. It takes Wuyi up to a month to build a submarine, and each one sells for about $31,000.

Read more here.

Seabreachers, sold by Innespace, are like one-person submarines that can dive about five feet, go 40 mph on the surface and up to 20 mph under the water. I’ve never seen one in action, but this video caught my attention.

Just imagine one of those popping up next to you on the lake.

Seabreachers  look like animals – sharks, killer whales and dolphins. Maybe they ought to make an Asian carp version to terrorize the Great Lakes. Read more here.

The next AMS Oracle newsletter has been issued, click here to read a copy. If you would like to subscribe to the AMS Oracle then please email michelle.morley@analox.biz with your contact details.

January 29^th saw me embarking on the 20+hr flight to Sydney for the Pacific 2012 exhibition. Sadly I didn’t get off to the best start when in my 5am haze I managed to enter the wrong pin number for my credit card and get it blocked for the duration of the trip!

Fortunately things picked up – and despite an unusually wet Sydney the show was well attended. It’s my first time to Pacific 2012 and I must admit I was impressed by the quality of exhibitors and attendees. It was a great opportunity to spend time with our Distributor – Divex who were exhibiting at the show, and to meet some of our customers like Cowan Manufacturing who’ve been making transportable recompression chambers since the early 90’s.

Fortunately for me there was good interest in our new ACG monitor – for contaminants in compressed breathing air, and some great leads into the Australian and Asian defence market.

Of course it wasn’t all work, and I was lucky enough to get a tour of an RAN Minehunter, one of their most sophisticated vessels in the fleet. And enjoy the delights of the foot long pizza’s in Griniti’s – those of you heading to Darling Harbour should definitely check it out!

The rest of my trip was spent in Perth, where I was fortunate to enjoy a tour of LR5 and associated rescue assets at James Fisher Defence – huge thank you to Mark & Ralph. I was also lucky enough to visit HMAS Stirling and receive a very informative tour of a Collins Class boat – every time I visit a submarine I leave with a greater respect for our submariners.

Here’s hoping I won’t have to wait another 6 years for my next visit!  Vicky Brown

(Please check out the Analox Flickr account to view the pictures of my trip)

The BBC has a really interesting video showing DOER Marine putting the finishing touches to their Deep Search submarine.

Watch it here.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Astute returned home to Scotland yesterday after deploying to America for her most important series of sea trials yet.

The hunter-killer nuclear submarine HMS Astute, the first of the Navy’s next-generation submarines, is the most advanced submarine Britain has ever sent to sea.

Four teams are diving to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench, which lies 11km (7 miles) down in the western Pacific.

One of them is a team backed by Virgin Oceanic, the latest addition to Richard Branson’s empire. The vehicle is called the Deep Flight Challenger and will “fly” through the water like a plane flies through the air.

Watch how Graham Hawkes describes why he has designed the vessel in this way.

Costing £130m and weighing 360 tonnes, the NATO Submarine Rescue System is one of the most sophisticated pieces of equipment in the world. For four days, 70 experts from three countries put it through its paces.

The NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS) is stored and maintained in a giant purpose-built hangar at HM Naval Base Clyde. It is so sophisticated that it can dive to 2,000 feet (610m) – deep enough to operate anywhere around the world’s continental shelves.

Read more of this great story here. Can you spot the Analox analysers? Goody bags are on offer if you can!