The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) has awarded a contract to Aurora ROV Systems to supply six remote operated vehicles (ROV).
Canada’s defence minister Peter MacKay said that the contract demonstrated the ability to provide the forces with the required equipment to carry out their missions.
"This is a win-win scenario whereby Canadian coastlines are better protected and Canadian business grows," MacKay added.
Commenting further on the deal, Aurora ROV Systems Jim Camano told the Chronicle Herald that the new $1.66m contract for small, remotely controlled, underwater robots would replace the existing ageing equipment with the navy.
The underwater robots can be used to perform any task that the military needs carrying out on the seabed, Camano added.
Canadian forces will use the ROVs to survey the bottom hulls of ships and to support operations in water depths of 950m, including locating aircraft lost at sea, and retrieving the aircraft’s black box.
Additional tasks to be performed by the ROVs include recovery of smugglers jettisoned objects and inspect suspicious objects, such as naval mines, mine-like objects and also to provide naval mines ordnance.
According to Canadian National Defence, two of the ROV model vehicles had participated during major sovereignty and security exercise, the Operation Nunalivut 2012, in Canada’s high Arctic region.
During the exercise, the two ROV explored the bottom of the Northwest Passage, located 805km in north of the Arctic Circle, and identified the merchant ship shipwreck HMS Breadalbane that sank in 1853.
Currently, the RCN also operates ISE Trialblazer MCM ROV.
