Acceptance Testing of the Triton Autonomous Maritime Vehicle Complete

Mon, 11/23/2020 - 03:34pm

Ocean Aero, Inc. was in Gulfport, Miss. November 4, 2020 delivering the first Triton autonomous maritime vehicle to The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Marine Research Center (MRC). Ocean Aero is manufacturing six Triton systems for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) for research and testing to support maritime protection and law enforcement operations. Cherokee Nation Strategic Programs, LLC (CNSP) is the prime contractor to DHS S&T responsible for acquiring the Triton test systems and designing the logistics management process for evaluating, testing and sustaining the vehicles.

The successful delivery of the first Triton system is a major project accomplishment. Since the system was ordered in early 2020, the Ocean Aero team was able to maintain the production and testing schedule while meeting all COVID-19 safety requirements during manufacturing and delivery. By meeting the first delivery goal in early November. The project stays on schedule with a new Triton unit coming off of the production line every month until the DHS S&T order of six systems is fulfilled in early 2021. “We’re thrilled to be able to meet the first of many milestones on schedule and with the quality that everyone in this project expects to see. We look forward to continued partnership with DHS S&T, USM, CNSP and the rest of the community as we deliver the remaining vehicles and build out platform capabilities for a range of critical mission sets,” said Bill Burns, CTO at Ocean Aero, Inc.

The Triton autonomous maritime vehicle is a hybrid, dual-modality system that is environmentally powered – wind and solar charge the batteries. The Triton offers long endurance, a low threshold of detection, and precision navigation in both surface and subsurface operations. The system is payload agnostic with integrated autonomy for navigation to provide an off-the-shelf capability for a wide range of users with diverse mission needs.

The research team of CNSP, USM, and Ocean Aero designed an Acceptance Test Plan to validate the delivery of the Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) product. This plan used the unique resources of the USM MRC to access testing areas around the Port of Gulfport to put the Triton system through a series of test cases that exercised each of the baseline capabilities of the vehicle. USM facilities provided an ideal location for demonstrating the surface and subsurface features of the Triton system, while also allowing the government team and data collection staff the chance to observe the tests while maintaining proper COVID-19 distancing. “We are off to an excellent start to utilize the Ocean Aero Triton system for development of integrated sensor payloads for a wide variety of applications,” said Rich Delgado, coordinator of USM’s autonomous maritime systems programs.

The CNSP team brings a long history of test and evaluation of unmanned systems technologies across multiple domains. It was exciting to see the Triton system perform so well and accomplish all of the acceptance tests on the first day of testing. This is a great indication of the long term results that DHS can expect from this project and the team that is assembled to deliver those results. “It is a real honor supporting DHS while bringing new technologies into their agencies’ portfolios. These cutting-edge, autonomous systems will be part of a network of smart innovative technology insertions,” said John “JC” Coffey, Executive Director, UXS, Cherokee Nation Businesses.

In the coming months, Ocean Aero will provide training for the USM and CNSP team to continue evaluating the performance envelope of the Triton system. The team will prepare for sensor integration and DHS field testing in 2021, while also pursuing other opportunities for collaboration.

For more information, contact: Kevin Decker at 713-305-3174, kdecker@oceanaero.us.