When I talked to Guldin in December, after the first phase of the pilot ended, he sketched a preliminary vision of this job that could look like in the near future. Robot information collection machines are equipped with cameras, strong lights, Sonar and the upgraded Grabber system can be used to pick up bullets more effectively than cranes based on the current use and exist. can operate around the clock. With remote vehicles, pouring websites can also be resolved from many sides at the same time, one thing that cannot be done from a fixed platform on the surface. And skilled workers, perhaps can monitor most jobs from offices in Hamburg, instead of spending days at sea.
That fact can be a bit of a way, but although there are a few problems, such as poor underwater vision and sometimes incomplete light, this makes remote operation through the image on duty Continuing difficult, most technologies in the initial tests operate as planned. Certainly there is room for improvement, but basically this concept works, and the idea that you can determine underwater and store it immediately into traffic boxes, Wolfgang Sichermann, an ants The Navy Master has a company, Season, and has supervised the project on behalf of the German Ministry of Environment. Hopefully started design and then built a floating processing facility in the coming months, and began to burn the first explosives around 2026, Sichermann said.
Hand out?
When I visited Sealy Seacra on a cold day but obviously in October last year, I talked to veteran ammunition experts Michael Scheffler, who spent a month on the nearby Haffkrug, on the shore. The German Sea, carefully cracked the heavy wooden barrel in mud and slime and packed with 20 mm cannon bullets created by Nazi Germany. That morning, they checked about 5.8 tons of 20 mm, taken from Muck by those who took mechanics and underwater robots and then pulled on the podium.
Scheffler spent decades working as an ammunition expert, the work he started when serving in the German army. But he never fully grasped the level of the problem of ammunition, or previously imagined trying to solve the problem directly.
I have been working for 42 years and I have never had the opportunity to work in a project like this, he told me. What is really being developed and researched here in the pilot project is valid for gold for the future.
Guldin, while similarly optimistic about the pilot results, warned that it was still limited to how much he could be done remotely with technology. Difficult, dangerous and sensitive work will sometimes need practice expertise, at least in the near future. There are limitations to perform a complete remote clearance on the seabed. Certainly, experts in divers and EOD (exploding materials) on the sea floor and experts on the spot, they will never disappear, there is no way.
If the initial cleaning effort proves success, the hope that technology can find buyers ready elsewhere and not only around Baltic. In the 1970sArmy around the world has moved to oceans such as landfills for old bullets.
But because there is no money to execute the old air bomb, any explosion in the treatment of underwater ammunition will depend on the large investments on environmental remedies, which only happens. We can accelerate the process and more efficient, certainly, Mr. Gul Guldin said. The only thing is, if you bring more resources into this field, it also means that someone has to pay for it. Do we have a local government in the future, who is willing to pay for that? I have my doubts, to be honest.
Two weeks ago, I talked to Ambassador Bahamas, Sichermann said. He said, 'You are greeted more to come and clean up everything that the British sinks in the 70s, just before the Bahamas becomes independent.' But they hope you will bring money, not just technology. For that reason, you always have to see who has prepared to sponsor it. However, find appropriate financial supporters and will have a lot of potential work around the world, Sichermann said. Definitely no shortage of ammunition.