TWO crewless vessels will patrol Pacific waters to help identify and track suspicious maritime traffic.
A joint operation between the Fiji and New Zealand navies will see the USVs (unmanned surface vehicles or Bluebottles) to undertake a wide variety of roles. These include fishery protection, border protection and providing meteorological data.
The 7.4-metre vessels can conduct long endurance operations without the need for crew or refueling. They have a top speed of five knots and use solar, wind or wave motion to power monitoring systems and propulsion.