Analox Military Systems (AMS) has supplied gas analysis equipment to an ambitious project which has provided the first ever film footage of a giant squid in its natural habitat.

AMS, which is based in Stokesley, North Yorkshire, supplied Sub Aspidas to monitor the atmosphere inside the submersibles used in the project, ensuring safe conditions at all times for the crew and scientists on board.

Footage of the giant squid will be premiered in Discovery TV’s Monster Squid: The Giant is Real on Sunday, 27^th January, 2013 (8pm ET/PT).  Discovery Channel joined forces with NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster, to organise the project to film the creature, which has to date only been captured in still photographs.

The submersibles used for the project were organised by Mark Taylor of Manned Sub International, who has worked with AMS for a number of years.  More than 55 submersible dives were required and more than 285 hours underwater, some at depths greater than 3,000 feet.  Two deep sea submersibles with panoramic views were used to film the giant squid.  Mark commented: “The Giant Squid has never before been filmed in the deep, and it has been thrilling to work on this project.  Thanks to AMS and the Sub Aspida, we have been able to ensure everyone in the submersibles has been safe from potentially harmful gases at all times.”

What happens if one of India’s 15 submarines malfunctions underwater and sinks with its crew on board? As India is forced to operate an aging fleet – some over two decades old – the prospect of facing such a situation is almost real. It is perhaps to address this gap that for the first time India-US will be carrying out an exercise to rescue its trapped submarines. This is first that the Indian Navy will carry out such a complex exercise.

The Indo-US submarine rescue exercise named ‘INDIAEX-2012′  is likely to continue for nearly a month. During the exercise, four Indian submarines are likely to sail into the Arabian Sea off the coast of Mumbai and simulate a distress situation.

Read more here.

The Royal Navy’s newest submarine is sailing from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, to its new base at Faslane on the Clyde.

Ambush cost £1.6bn and is the second Astute class nuclear-powered submarine to be built in Cumbria.

The 7,400 tonne vessel was built by BAE Systems over nine years.

Commanding officer Peter Green said Ambush was to undergo sea trials to “prove this amazing piece of equipment is ready for operations”.

Read more here.

Divers assigned to Mobile Underwater Diving Salvage Unit (MUDSU) 1 and divers from coalition partners conducted a recompression chamber exercise during Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2012 July 18. The exercise was conducted as part of the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) scenario within RIMPAC. The scenario consisted of a diver becoming unconscious due to an arterial gas embolism while conducting a search and rescue mission. “An arterial gas embolism is usually the result of an injury to the lungs that causes bubbles to leak into the bloodstream,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dennis Kypros, MUDSU 1 Training Officer. “A bubble that leaks into the bloodstream acts like a blood clot and can cause a stroke for a diver.” During the exercise, members of MUDSU 1 pulled a simulated unconscious diver out of the water, and by using small boats, the team transported the diver to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force minesweeper tender JS Bungo (MST-464). “It is very beneficial for our Navy to continue participating in RIMPAC scenarios such as these,” said Cmdr. Hiroki Yokozawa, Bungo commanding officer. “Our presence here now and in the past, has helped us immensely in our efforts to aid Japan during the earthquake last year.”

Read more of the story.

It’s June and once again I am on a KLM flight back to where I started my job with Analox, Amsterdam and the annual SMERWG conference.

This years SMERWG conference was hosted by the Royal Netherland Navy in Amsterdam.  The industry reception occurs during the middle of the conference and it is one of many events that take place at SMERWG.  From the industry there were exhibits from Divex, Rolls Royce, SAAB as well as Sonistics  and Hale Hamilton to name just a few.

The conference was well attended with many countries attending from outside of NATO, such as Pakistan, Algeria and South Africa  all who regularly attend the SMERWG conference.

New visitors to this year’s conference were Commander Witold Kotlinski And Lt Commander Huber Bialasiewicz from the Polish Navy and Captain Anatoly Suvalor and Capt Alexey Sakharov from the Russian Federation Navy.  This gave me my first chance to use my one and only phrase in Russian Spasciva (Thank you) learnt while on service in Bosnia many years ago.  However, with a capable interpreter on hand our conversations were interesting and informative.

Sadly Jos Bogaert an old friend of Analox Military Systems retired from his current role as a serving navy officer he is passing on his considerable knowledge to his replacement Lt K Knevell.  Jos however has not left the submarine community as he is taking up a role as a reserve officer and will still be working with his beloved Walrus class boats.  Good luck in the new post Jos.

Andrew Skinner -AMS Sales

China has announced that it is ready to send a manned submersible 23,000 feet (7,000meters) down in the ocean, a trip that would make the country the proud owner of the deepest diving state-owned craft on Earth.

A Chinese ship ferrying the Jiaolong, a deep-sea submersible that can carry three people, arrived at a spot in the Pacific Ocean above the Mariana Trench on June 11. The planned dive toward the Earth’s deepest spot is largely symbolic, since the trench plunges far deeper than the Jiaolong’s maximum 23,000-foot reach.

To read more of this amazing story click here.

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.