What is the Seaglider, the underwater vehicle that fishermen find in Selayar? All pages

KOMPAS.com – The Chief of the Naval General Staff (KSAL), Admiral TNI Yudo Margono, confirmed that the alleged marine drone found at Selayar Waters, in South Sulawesi, was a sea glider.

“I will tell you about the tool or glider that was found yesterday by fishermen in Najapahit Village, Selayar, that I brought these findings to Hidrosal, because here is a competent institution to investigate the existence of this equipment,” Yudo said at a conference of press cited by Compass TV, Monday (1/4/2021).

According to Yudo, the glider was found by a fisherman who was fishing around 07:00 WITA on December 26, 2020.

Also read: KSAL gives one-month ranges to reveal Seaglider’s origins in Selayar

So what is a glider?

Underwater vehicle

This tool was first developed by the University of Washington Schhol of Oceanography and the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory beginning in 1995 with funding provided by the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation.

Launch of the official industry page Hydroid, seaglider is an underwater vehicle (AUV) for marine data collection.

Apart from that, the Seaglider was also developed for long-term continuous measurement of oceanographic parameters.

The Seaglider takes advantage of small changes in buoyancy and wings to get around.

Hold 10 months

This results in extremely low power consumption and a long service life of up to 10 months, depending on configuration and payload.

Seaglider’s rugged design and operating model allow it to operate in almost all marine and weather conditions.

Read also: Seaglider in Selayar, KSAL: you cannot find the country of manufacture

The data collection mission could take months, while the vehicle was also capable of traveling thousands of miles.

Seaglider may appear periodically to determine your position, transmit the collected data, and receive orders via satellite telemetry.

Being relatively light and small in shape, the glider can be deployed by means of small boats.

Applications

The Seaglider itself has several functions, namely physical oceanography, chemical oceanography, environmental monitoring, climate change studies, marine observatories, storm monitoring, ecosystem assessment, and fisheries research.

In addition, this tool is also capable of functioning as anti-submarine warfare (ASW), intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), basic environmental assessment and acoustic monitoring of marine mammals.

Also read: Chronology of the findings of Seaglider, suspect of marine drones

For information, the results of the temporary inspection of the glider found in Selayar have a frame of two wings of 50 centimeters each.

Then for the length of the body that measures 225 centimeters. This glider also has a rear antenna with a length of 93 centimeters.

Yudo said, in the body of the slider, there is a camera-like instrument. The whole frame of this glider is made of aluminum.

Since the mid-term review, Yudo confirmed that there were no written characteristics marking the country of manufacture.