International Submarine Engineering (ISE) has announced that the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) has placed an order for an Explorer autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). According to the company, the vehicle will be used for marine search and recovery as well as survey operations.

ISE said that the JCG Explorer will also be supplied with a light-weight self-articulating ramp-based launch and recovery system which will be installed on one of their ships. This will enable the Coast Guard to launch and recover their AUV in an elevated Sea State. The launch and recovery ramp system is built by Hawboldt Industries of Chester, Nova Scotia.

The Explorer family of AUVs was introduced in 2003 and follows previous ISE AUVs including ARCS and Theseus. Explorer is a modular vehicle that can be configured for commercial, scientific or military customers. It can carry a wide range of sensors and has endurance options ranging from 12 to 85 hours. It has developed a reputation as a reliable, stable and flexible sensor platform and in total, ISE AUVs have completed more than 120,000 kilometres of surveys.