Oil facilities in Saudi Arabia have been significant targets of drone attacks in recent years, with massive economic consequences. Neither they nor even the smallest amount of wreckage was ever discovered despite extensive searches by military aircraft and vessels. The surface of the King Island Rise also occurs in water depths of less than 50m (160ft), and includes the shallow (40m[130ft]) Tail Bank at its northern margin as well as King Island itself. Among the new documents released to us is this briefing slide, which depicts the course of the Bass Strait relative to the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Paul Hamilton, also abbreviated here as PHM, as it transited to a scheduled port call in Long Beach, California. The U.S. Please try again later. The unusual commingling of the longstanding UFO issue with drones has arguably created a potent cultural blindspot that can be exploited by adversaries. Current weather forecasts from the Bureau of Meteorology suggest light northeasterly winds tracking south for the first two days of the race, when the super maxis will travel through the strait. Forty miles into its Bass Strait nightmare, Midnight Rambler was confronted with a situation that could easily have ended its race. The second question is easier to answer. The ominous reputation of the Bass Strait goes back to its very discovery in 1797, when the vessel Sydney Cove, . These new documents leave little doubt in that regard. (Yes, thats a bit before the 19th century.) Perhaps the most thorough list of losses and disappearances has been the oft reprinted book of Jack Loney[20] though it is possible that most losses can be adequately explained by extreme weather events.[21]. More than 100 yachts, from small two-person boats to 30-metre super maxis, will compete this year, battling it out from Sydney down to Constitution Dock in Hobart via Bass Strait. 1.Gulf of Guinea. While none of the five people on board were ever located, a search of the waters did recover some minimal wreckage. The Biden administration issued a new directive to address data collection, among other provisions, regarding drone incidents earlier this year. Half of the world's attacks now take place in the waters off Indonesia, Singapore and . You have corrected this article This article has been corrected by You and other Voluntroves This article has been corrected by Voluntroves The Bass Strait's owner and operator, Hong Kong-based Pacific Basin, did not reply to several requests for comment. These teams consist of sailors trained to conduct onboard photographic intelligence in order to document unknown contacts and events of interest. The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race passes generally east of the strait but is affected by its weather conditions. He also has a liking for the NFL, film and music. The national park is wholly contained by the Beagle Commonwealth Marine Reserve. Why the Taiwan issue is so dangerous. Finally, a photograph of one of the drones was included with the report: While our initial investigation focused on the cluster of drone events in July described above, these new records also indicate that at least two other significant drone swarm events occurred in the waters off Southern California earlier in 2019. But we've already seen that Tasmanian canoe-rafts became unmaneuverable and sank after about 10 miles of travel in calm seas. CTO Jared Page added that definitely in the last two years there has been a marked increase in activity related to swarms. The companys threat intelligence database has registered approximately 151 swarm incidents in that time. In congressional testimony, defense officials explained that "the triangular appearance is a result of light passing through the night vision goggles, and then being recorded by an SLR camera.". In this incident, the drones were assessed to likely be operated by a local fisherman operating personal quadcopters. A note indicates that no videos were captured of the drones due to distance. 1980. Nothing more was heard from the Miss Hobart after that. Among these new incidents are previously unknown events that occurred in the early months of 2019 and were assessed by the Navy to involve intelligence collection operations. Theres no better example of this than at the eastern edge of the strait, right where the Sydney to Hobart adventurers pass: the Bass Canyon. The final hurdle for any Bass Strait crossing is the last step to the Tasmanian mainland across Banks Strait, theoretically the most dangerous part of the whole crossing. Then there are local tides, which generally flow west to east in the strait. The oil and gas is sent via pipeline to gas processing facilities and oil refineries at Longford (Longford gas plant), Western Port (Westernport Refinery closed 1985), Altona (Altona Refinery scheduled to close in 2021) and Geelong (Geelong Oil Refinery), as well as by tanker to New South Wales. Oxley and his crew had just felt the full force of Bass Strait, a body of water with ferocious waves, harsh winds, and an unpredictable nature that has occupied the hearts and minds of sailors for years. The Panama Canal: Interlinking the Atlantic Ocean with . Following her sudden disappearance, investigators would discover that none of her belongings had been taken and that her room was left as if had she been coming back to it that evening as normal. In this incident, drones crossed the flight deck of the ship while flying in a consistent pattern that did not alter course, speed, or altitude.. By the time he had returned his gaze to the road, the green object was nowhere to be seen. In 1920, while sailing into the Bass Strait, the SS Amelia J. disappeared without a trace shortly after entering the infamous stretch of water. The video was recently discussed in a congressional hearing on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena as an example of a solved case. These details were obtained after The War Zone successfully appealed extensive redactions of the ship logs. A US Navy sailor training with a Northrop Grumman DRAKE electronic warfare system. Based on the recorded language groups, there were at least three successive waves of aboriginal colonisation. Spend enough time at any boat ramp from Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Texas to Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota and you'll hear a common complaint: "Man, it's getting harder and harder to catch a bass.". The stories of the ancient world made the whirlpool into a much more deadly threat. Many sea kayakers have since made the crossing, usually by island hopping on the eastern side of the strait. DroneSec cited a 2020 Department of Justice audit focused on the use of drones in delivering prison contraband as an example of how swarm technology is increasingly used in practice. Most notably the Kent Group National Park covers the Kent Group islands of Tasmania, as well as the surrounding state waters which is a dedicated marine reserve. 2022Recurrent Ventures. During that time, several drones flew directly over the USS Russell. The timeline indicates ships were directed by "GZ" but it is unclear what this abbreviation refers to. By Les Christie @CNNMoney July 27, 2012: 5:47 AM ET. Stretching 250 kilometres from west to east and 200 kilometres north to south at its narrowest point is the Bass Strait (or just Bass Strait, as many people call it) that separates Victoria and Tasmania. Bass Strait is shallow. The Russell has attracted particular attention in the last year as the vessel that captured the leaked flying triangle footage. Lin Pardey. In the coming days the sea will remain rough. (1988). If this was the case, its possible that the yacht could have drifted as far as islands to the south of New Zealand. There are plenty of theories as to what might have happened, though. While drone overflights of Navy vessels are not new, the use of multiple drones simultenously is an emerging phenomenon. winter southern ocean gales can turn the crossing into a real adventure. But having sailed through the passage, he confirmed it separated the two large islands of New Zealand. Within the western hemisphere, drones have been used by non-state criminal actors in Mexico both as means of smuggling and as weapons of war. Blom, W. M., & Alsop, D. B. [12], Despite the strait's difficult waters, it provided a safer and less boisterous[clarification needed] passage for ships on the route from Europe or India to Sydney in the early 19th century. At Flinders' recommendation, the Governor of New South Wales, John Hunter, in 1800 named the stretch of water between the mainland and Van Diemen's Land "Bass's Straits". Perhaps best known by many voyagers as a dangerous corridor of storm-force winds and breaking seas, the eastern end of Bass Strait was the scene of disaster in the 1998 Sydney-Hobart Race when six sailors lost their lives. The last transmission from the Miss Hobart spookily shares a detail with that of the Jason Manifold account. Finally, the USS Ralph Johnson (RJN), another Arleigh Burke class destroyer, also prepared briefing slides about the incident. At times it becomes dangerous because of its narrowness and acute turns the ships have to take. Bass Strait is shallow. Hence, The Bosphorus strait is of great significance. The War Zone previously laid out this reality and its implications in great detail in this feature. bass strait can be one of the roughest stretches of ocean in the world. You can see the drop-off represented in the image below. And all of them seemingly have strange stories to tell. Several days later, the USS Gabrielle Giffords (GBG), an Independence class Littoral Combat Ship, encountered a set of four drones in the same general vicinity. Bass boats are made to float on the water. The briefing slide states that the Navy assessed that the commercial cargo ship was likely conducting surveillance on Navy vessels using drones, or unidentified aerial vehicles (UAV). The images from the incident include these photographs of what appears to be the Bass Strait. The USS Paul Hamilton reported observing and identifying the drones visually via technical means. Although an unknown vessel is referenced, it is unclear if this is the same ship that was operating near the USS Russell. The probability of encountering 3 meter or higher waves is approximately 30% at the western end of the Strait compared to approximately 15% in the North East. Bass Straight is exposed to the Roaring 40s that blow across the southern coastline of Australia. In that time, multiple UAVs were spotted operating around the destroyer. A tranche of deck logs from Navy vessels indicated that several ships had encountered drones over an extended period of time. He made two more crossings of Bass Strait before he died attempting to cross the Tasman Sea in February 2007. Three of the planes seats were discovered, as well pieces of the petrol tank. Bass Strait and its Islands. When the ice melted - a process estimated to have taken 6,000 years - Bass Strait formed and became . [16]:485. To get a sense of how frequently drone swarms are occurring in recent years, we recently spoke with DroneSec, a drone cybersecurity firm based in Melbourne. Domestically, drone swarms have been an issue for nuclear reactor facilities and critical industrial infrastructure. How can a small strait threaten a global powerhouse like China? It should be noted that in this time period, records show that some ships appear to have deployed and trained with a variety of counter drone technologies and techniques. A timeline of events shows that the surveillance lasted for just under four hours. So, just what makes this stretch of water so tumultuous? Subsequent release of video from the Navy makes it more likely that the small dark dots in the images of the Bass Strait are part of the structure of the ship than drones. In short, there was nothing to indicate that she had been planning on leaving.[6]. He says that while his father had gone inside his shed after taking the picture, Jason remained outside watching the sky. Aboriginal Tasmanians arrived in Tasmania approximately 40,000 years ago during the last glacial period, across a broad prehistoric land bridge called the Bassian Plain between the nowaday southern Victoria coastline (from Wilsons Promontory to Cape Otway) and the northern Tasmanian shores (from Cape Portland to Cape Grim). As investigations widened, reports began to emerge of strange lights being seen in the area on the evening in question. This is why concerts and parties are so dangerous because of the high noise levels and because people tend to listen to them for hours on end. A briefing slide from the USS Russell shows that the ship observed two groups of lights over a period of about three hours. The exact duration of the incident is less clear, though the timeline indicates drones were spotted over a period of about four and a half hours. The Biden administration issued a new directive to address data collection, among provisions... 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