The first general assembly of Bringing together Research and Industry for the Development of Glider Enviromental Services – BRIDGES, took place in the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto – FEUP - on days 6, 7 and 8 of September of 2016. This meeting aimed to evaluate the project status and share results and solutions between the different partners involved in the project.

Several different Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs), Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), equipped with different sensors and acoustic payloads, are being used together in the seventh annual edition of REP16-Atlantic exercise, a joint exercise of the Portuguese Navy, the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), and the University of Porto. From 5 to 31 July 2016, off the coast of Portugal, the Portuguese Navy, the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation and the University of Porto operated together in the maritime exercise which also marks the first international at-sea campaign for NRV Alliance under the Italian Flag.

REP16-Atlantic stands for Recognized Environmental Picture (REP) Atlantic 2016 and it is being conducted south of Sesimbra and Setubal. It also involves participants from the Belgian Navy, Oceanscan (Portugal), as well as observers from Naval Undersea Warfare Center (USA), NASA (USA), and European Project H2020 JPI Oceans.

Full story at www.hydro-international.com

As in previous years, LSTS and the Portuguese Navy are once again co-organizing REP16 exercise. This year, among the participants are CMRE, the Belgian Navy, SPAWAR and Oceanscan-OMT. Observing this exercise will be members from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, NASA and JPI Oceans.