The U.S. Navy recently demonstrated their expertise during a training exercise in Juneau.
Sailors launched submersibles that ran back and forth across the downtown harbor, making maps and looking for objects that were unusual or out of place. And, in the absence of real explosives, they practiced identifying some of the things they found at the bottom of Gastineau Channel like tires, crab pots and logs.
One Navy unit tested unmanned underwater vehicles equipped with side-scan sonar. These look like torpedos and would partially submerge and run back and forth across the downtown harbor like a batch of lawnmowers as they looked for objects that were unusual or out of place.
Another Navy unit created detailed maps of the ocean bottom.
A third Navy unit of divers would use remotely operated vehicles to identify unusual objects and remove any underwater explosives.
The U.S. Navy explosive ordinance disposal group spent two weeks in Juneau in late February and early March 2020 as part of Arctic Edge 2020 exercises.
