| History | |
|---|---|
 China | |
| Name | Rainbowfish |
| Namesake | Rainbowfish |
| Ordered | 2013 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Bathyscaphe |
| Propulsion | Lithium-ion battery |
| Complement | 2 |
The Rainbowfish class bathyscaphe is a Chinese deep submergence vehicle under development in 2015 and originally scheduled to enter service in 2019, [1] but has since been postponed after 2020.
Rainbowfish bathyscaphe is a second generation bathyscaphe designed to be able to dive to a depth of 11 km, effectively covering 100% of the oceanic floor. The general designer is Mr. Cui Weicheng (崔维成), who was the first deputy general designer of the first generation bathyscaphes Sea Pole and Jiaolong. Unlike other Chinese deep submergence vehicles developed earlier, the Rainbowfish was developed under a new business model, raising capital from private enterprise. [2] [3] [4] To maximize efficiency after its completion, Rainbowfish-class bathyscaphe is designed to operate in conjunction with unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) and benthic landers that are capable of operating at the same depth of the bathyscaphe, with all vehicles are developed by the same company, and all of them are also named after rainbowfish, operating from the same mothership, the Chinese oceanographic research ship Zhang Jian. [5] [6] [7] [8]
The Rainbowfish class bathyscaphe is designed to have an endurance of ten hours, with ascent and descent each taking two hours, thus leaving a total of six hours of endurance to conduct research at the sea floor. [2] The bathyscaphe is powered by Lithium-ion batteries and the flotation material is developed by Chinese firm China Haohua Chemical Group, with development successfully completed at the end of 2014. [1] Most of the subsystems of Rainbowfish bathyscaphe such as underwater electric motor, high pressure seawater pump and integrated propulsion system are developed from earlier Jiaolong bathyscaphe. [9] Although many subsystems can be 100% manufactured in China, there are some critical subsystems that had to be manufactured abroad due to the limitation of Chinese industrial and technical bottleneck, despite being indigenously designed in China. One of such subsystem is the capsule housing the crew. During the design stage of the development, it was discovered that the TC4 titanium alloy used on earlier Sea Pole and Jiaolong bathyscaphe are not good candidate for Rainbowfish, because the thickness required would be 110 mm, which would be extremely difficult to build. As a result, alternative material is needed, and the design settled on Martensitic stainless steel. [2] [3] [4] However, existing Chinese capability can only provide the manufacture of capsule capable of diving to a maximum depth of 4500 meter, [9] so foreign assistance was needed with Finnish firm selected due to Finnish experience in construction of deep submergence vehicles. [2] Finnish experts concluded that the Chinese design was feasible after thorough review, both sides are finalizing the deal in the mid 2015, with the completion of the capsule scheduled in 2016. [4] Plans are made to have future capsules manufactured in China by increasing domestic Chinese capability with governmental support. [4] The mother ship carrying Rainbowfish bathyscaphe will be Chinese oceanographic research ship Zhang Jian. [2] [3] [4]
An extremely crude full-scale model was displayed in public in May 2016 and it was reported that design completion date had slipped to 2020, [10] and has been further delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Rainbowfish UUV is will be working together with Rainbowfish bathyscaphe, which is completed in 2015, more than half a decade before the design of the bathyscaphe itself has been completed. Rainbowfish UUV is an ARV, which stands for Autonomous Remotely-controlled Vehicle, which is a hybrid of an Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and a Remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROUV), and can operate as either one when needed, just like the American Nereus hybrid unmanned underwater vehicle developed by American Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The general designer of Rainbowfish UUV/ARV is Mr. Hu Yong (胡勇, 1975-) [6] [7] [8]
Rainbowfish UUV/ARV is the first Chinese ARV that can operate to a depth up to 1,1000 meters, but it cannot directly dive the that depth, instead, a relay station has to be used to support dive beyond 7,000 meters: the relay station and Rainbowfish UUV/ARV would be lowered from the mother ship to first dive to 7 km deep, once reaching there, the relay station would hover at that depth, and Rainbowfish UUV/ARV would continue dive, while connected by the relay station by a fiber-optic cable. [6] [7] [8] Once reaching the maximum depth of 11 km, Rainbowfish UUV/ARV would perform its designed tasks within a range of four to five kilometers. [6] [7] [8] Rainbowfish UUV/ARV has been completed in 2015, before the design of Rainbowfish bathyscaphe has even been completed, and has been deployed for multiple missions. [5] [6] [7] [8]
To maximize efficiency, Rainbowfish-class bathyscaphe is designed to operate in conjunction with unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) and benthic landers (BL)s. [11] [5] However, it was discovered during the feasibility study of the bathyscaphe that the Chinese benthic lander at the time could not reach the operating depth of the Rainbowfish bathyscaphe, so it was decided new benthic landers are developed concurrently, which were completed prior to the completion of the bathyscaphe itself, and have since been deployed for various scientific research missions. These benthic landers adopt the same name of the bathyscaphe, and a total of three models capable of operating at a depth of 11000 meters have been developed by 2015: [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
The general designer of Rainbowfish BLs are Mr. Pan Binbin (潘彬彬, 1982-). [6] [7] [8] Just like the Rainbowfish ARV, Rainbowfish series BLs also entered service before the completion of Rainbowfish bathyscaphe, and has since be deployed for numersous missions. [5] [6] [7] [8]
Alvin (DSV-2) is a crewed deep-ocean research submersible owned by the United States Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The vehicle was built by General Mills' Electronics Group in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Named to honor the prime mover and creative inspiration for the vehicle, Allyn Vine, Alvin was commissioned on June 5, 1964. The submersible is launched from the deep submergence support vessel RV Atlantis (AGOR-25), which is also owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by WHOI. The submersible has made more than 5,000 dives, carrying two scientists and a pilot, to observe the lifeforms that must cope with super-pressures and move about in total darkness, as well as exploring the wreck of Titanic. Research conducted by Alvin has been featured in nearly 2,000 scientific papers.
A submersible is an underwater vehicle which needs to be transported and supported by a larger watercraft or platform. This distinguishes submersibles from submarines, which are self-supporting and capable of prolonged independent operation at sea.
A deep-submergence vehicle (DSV) is a deep-diving crewed submersible that is self-propelled. Several navies operate vehicles that can be accurately described as DSVs. DSVs are commonly divided into two types: research DSVs, which are used for exploration and surveying, and DSRVs, which are intended to be used for rescuing the crew of a sunken navy submarine, clandestine (espionage) missions, or both. DSRVs are equipped with docking chambers to allow personnel ingress and egress via a manhole.
Trieste II(DSV-1) was the successor to Trieste – the United States Navy's first bathyscaphe purchased from its Swiss designers.
An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a robot that travels underwater without requiring continuous input from an operator. AUVs constitute part of a larger group of undersea systems known as unmanned underwater vehicles, a classification that includes non-autonomous remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) – controlled and powered from the surface by an operator/pilot via an umbilical or using remote control. In military applications an AUV is more often referred to as an unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV). Underwater gliders are a subclass of AUVs.
Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV), sometimes known as underwater drones, are submersible vehicles that can operate underwater without a human occupant. These vehicles may be divided into two categories: remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROUVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). ROUVs are remotely controlled by a human operator. AUVs are automated and operate independently of direct human input.
The Type 925 Dajiang with NATO reporting name Dajiang, or 大江 in Chinese, meaning Great River, is a type of naval auxiliary ship belonging to the People's Republic of China. Each ship is usually equipped with up to two Type 7103 DSRV class Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicles (DSRVs). The ship is designed to replace the first People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) submarine tender PLANS Mount Tai, and the lead ship of the Dajiang class is the Changxingdao. The Type 925 is a submarine tender that can also be used as a submarine rescue ship, and hence, it is designated as a submarine support ship by Chinese.
The Chinese 8A4 class ROUV is a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROUV) used to perform various underwater tasks, ranging from oil platform service to salvage and rescue missions. The 8A4 is a member of a series of related ROUVs developed by the Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA) in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The predecessor to the 8A4 was the RECON-IV, an improved version of the American RECON-III. The 8A4 itself is an upgraded version of the American AMETEK 2006, and the 7B8 is an improved version of the 8A4.
The Goldfish class remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROUV) is a class of light ROUV developed by the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Science. It is in service with both the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and other civilian agencies of the People's Republic of China.
Explorer autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a Chinese AUV developed in the People's Republic of China (PRC), first entering service in November 1994. It should not be confused with another two Anglo-American AUVs that share the same name: the American Autonomous Benthic Explorer AUV (ABE) built by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the British Columbia-based International Submarine Engineering built Canadian Explorer AUV, which is based on its earlier ARCS AUV. Many Chinese AUVs later developed, such as Wukong, WZODA, CR series, Exploration series, Micro Dragon series, Sea Whale series, Submerged Dragon series AUVs, are all based on experienced gained from Explorer AUV.
Jiaolong is a Chinese crewed deep-sea research submersible that can dive to a depth of over 7,000 metres (23,000 ft), developed from the Sea Pole-class bathyscaphe. It has the second-greatest depth range of any crewed research vehicle of the Chinese Navy; the only crewed expeditions to have gone deeper were the dives of the Trieste bathyscaphe in 1960, Archimède in 1962, Deepsea Challenger in 2012, and DSV Limiting Factor in 2019.
Chinese oceanographic research ship Zhang Jian is a Chinese research ship designed by Shanghai Ocean University and built by the civilian owned Zhejiang TianShi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (浙江天时造船有限公司) in Wenling, instead of government-owned enterprise, as in most cases of the ships in Chinese service.
Deep Sea Warrior bathyscaphe is a type of very little known deep-submergence vehicle built in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Deep Sea Warrier was handed over from its builder China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation to its customer at the end of 2016, but actual deep diving did not begun until end of the following year due to preparation needed, because it was such as new product that thorough preparation was needed to ensure its safe operation, and bathyscaphye is capable of diving to a depth of 4500 meters.
Striver bathyscaphe is a type of deep-submergence vehicle built in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was built by China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). It can accommodate three crew members,and is designed to reach depths of more than 10,000 meters. Striver is equipped with two mechanical arms, seven underwater cameras, seven sonars, hydraulic drills, and other scientific devices.
CAS benthic landers (BL)s are a series of very little known unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV)s developed by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in the People's Republic of China (PRC). As of the early 2020s, a total of five have been identified.
CSSC unmanned vehicles (UUV)s are uncrewed vehicles developed in the People's Republic of China (PRC) by China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), most of which are in service with various Chinese governmental agencies/departments, and government-owned enterprises.
Hadal 1 ARV is a type of very little known unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) built in the People's Republic of China (PRC). ARV stands for Autonomous Remotely-controlled Vehicle, an idea pioneered in China by Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and SIA is also the developer of Hadal 1 ARV, and its predecessor Hadal ARV, as well as Arctic ARV, the predecessor of Hadal ARV. Hadal 1 and its predecessor Hadal, and earlier Arctic series ARVs are the Chinese counterparts of Nereus hybrid unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), because just like Nereus hybrid UUV, these ARVs can operate both as a AUV or a ROUV. The general designer of Hadal 1 ARV is Mr. Tang Yuan-Gui (唐元贵).
Hadal ARV is a type of very little known unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) built in the People's Republic of China (PRC). ARV stands for Autonomous Remotely-controlled Vehicle, an idea pioneered in China by Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and SIA is also the developer of Hadal ARV and its predecessor Arctic ARV, as well as Hadal 1 ARV, the successor of Hadal ARV. Hadal and its predecessor Arctic series ARVs are the Chinese counterparts of Nereus hybrid unmanned underwater vehicle, because just like Nereus hybrid UUV, these ARVs can operate both as an AUV or a ROUV.
Discovery remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROUV) is a type of very little known unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) originally built in Great Britain by British firm Specialist Machine Development (SMD) Limited for the People's Republic of China (PRC). and the British firm was later purchased by CSR Corporation Limited in April 2015.
PWT unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV)s are uncrewed vehicles developed in the People's Republic of China (PRC) by PWT in Wuhan, most of which are in service with various Chinese governmental agencies/departments, and government-owned enterprises.
