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10 Platform one April/May 2018 | Unmanned Systems Technology Boeing has chosen Australia as the location for its largest autonomous systems development programme outside the US, building on expertise gained through work with its Insitu subsidiary (writes Nick Flaherty). It will develop autonomous air and sea systems over the next three years that are not subject to US export restrictions. “As autonomy becomes increasingly common, Boeing will continue to pioneer autonomous technologies, from seabed to space,” said the company’s Chris Raymond. The Australian centre will employ 131 engineers and will work with Boeing’s Trusted Autonomous Systems Defence Cooperative Research Centre in the US, taking research and developing it into exportable commercial products for the global autonomous market. One reason why Boeing chose Australia for the centre is the work Insitu has been doing there on a broad-area UAS situational awareness system that was exported to the US in late 2017. The first test of the monitoring system, in Al Seer Marine Technologies has demonstrated its Tamin USV, which is designed for maritime interdiction operations (writes Rory Jackson).  The 11 m, 7200 kg Tamin is fitted with twin FPT500 waterjet engines to give a maximum speed of 45 knots depending on the payload (for which the maximum capacity will be determined after future testing). Alternatively it can be fitted with outboard engines for easier maintenance, which may be as simple as detaching one outboard and connecting a new one. January 2018, used an Insitu UAV. The system is designed as one of the optional layers of safety to enable broad- area, beyond visual-line-of-sight capability for commercial UAS operations to help detect and avoid non-cooperative traffic. The system uses radio-over-internet protocol technology to expand its ability to communicate with air traffic control and local traffic in the operations area. Currently, UAS ground control operators can only fly aircraft within line of sight. Using either a mobile or fixed infrastructure, the monitoring system combines ADS-B and transponder Lee Drinkwater, Al Seer’s head of business development and strategy, said, “This demonstrator model has a system called Safe-Stop fitted near its bow, which fires an electronic pulse at another vessel 100 m or more away to disable it. It is also fitted with a long-range acoustic device, and another non-lethal device for broadcasting audio messages to other vessels or people. “It  also has a green laser dazzler, which can be fired out to 4 km and put into strobe mode to disorient potential hostile actors without causing significant returns to build a model of cooperative UAVs in the air and remotely detect and track other users. This data is then sent to operators at ground control systems to provide real- time information about the local airspace. “We’re developing our ability to fly long distances with our UASs that satisfies the airspace regulators, providing UAS operators with access to information that we previously couldn’t obtain otherwise,” said Mark Bauman at Insitu. “Now we can prevent conflicts far more reliably, and will be able to access wide areas for commercial purposes.” harm. That said, the system has been designed to easily integrate all types of payloads, from electro-optical and comms through to government-furnished equipment.”   The Tamin can be operated by remote control, and in semi-autonomous and fully autonomous modes. It communicates using a combination of RF, LTE and satcom. Depending on the payloads and fuel being carried, this configuration can travel more than 350 nautical miles at its 30 knot cruising speed. Development Down Under USV is a safe stopper Air and sea vehicles Surface vehicles Insitu’s UAS work in Australia has prompted Boeing to set up a development centre there