West Wales News

British multinational defence technology company Qinetiq collaborates with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to investigate how drone technology can strengthen their Search and Rescue (SAR) missions.Small unmanned air systems are delivering disruptive change across the industry. Ten years ago what was predominantly a niche hobby, or military technology, has now found wide commercial success. Anyone can easily have an eye in the sky and recent publicity is changing the way organisations view their problems.The Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) oversees search and rescue operations in the UK. Their volunteer Coastguard Rescue Teams respond to time-critical calls and work tirelessly to save lives.Funded by QinetiQ’s Internal Research and Development…

Mainstay Marine Solutions, a workboat builder and servicing specialists in South West Wales, said it has completed an overhaul of its existing marine servicing facilities, nearly doubling its slipping capability from 350 tons to 650 tons with the introduction of a new trolley recovery system. Fabricated in-house, the trolleys will be capable of slipping 45m long vessels up to 650 tons with a maximum 12 meter beam and 4 meter draft directly into one of its undercover sheds. Stewart Graves…

Thales is announcing a major commitment to develop future autonomous and unmanned technology across air and sea by investing in two new UK-based trials and training centers. Following Thales’s successful trials during the Royal Navy’s Unmanned Warrior exercise in 2016, Thales is now investing in two trials and training centres based in West Wales and in South-West England to test and develop autonomous systems for both military and civil activities. "Investing in these facilities enables the safe test…

A high-speed rigid inflatable boat (RIB) will be featured in the first unmanned water-borne demonstration to take place at the world’s largest defense and security exhibition, being staged in London this month. The result of a collaboration between BAE Systems and ASV Global, the Pacific 950 optionally-manned RIB has already made waves at Unmanned Warrior naval exercise which took place off the coasts of Scotland and West Wales just under a year ago. Now it’s set to play a vital…

Thales is set to play a key role in a major U.K. Royal Navy exercise later this year to understand how unmanned systems might add real innovative operational capability in a military maritime environment. Exercise Unmanned Warrior will bring together the Royal Navy and 40 organizations from defense, industry and academia in October, representing the largest exercise of its kind. More than 50 vehicles, sensors and systems from across defense and industry will be deployed the Ministry of Defense exercise centered around the U.K. coast of Scotland and West Wales.

In September, The Bristol Port Company made a repeat order of a second type of crane is approximately $7.8m. The crane will be delivered to the Royal Portbury Dock in Bristol, U.K. in September 2007. The Bristol Port Company is a major deep-water port favorably located next to the huge consumer markets of the Midlands, London, and the fast growing markets of South and South West Wales. The port is designed to accommodate Cape-sized vessels with up to 130,000 tons dead weight, and the new investment in Konecranes Grab Unloader will further increase the ship unloading capacity of coal and animal feedstuffs at the Portbury Dock. The crane has a lifting capacity of 28 tonnes and an unloading capacity of 1,200 tons per hour.