SMD Ultra Trencher 1 starts its new job: laying pipes and cables in the briny deep

What's supposedly the largest deep-sea remote-controlled robot ever built was rolled out this week: the SMD Ultra Trencher 1 (UT1), a 50 ton, £10m ($19.8m) ROV the size of a small domicile (25.5 x 25.5 x 18.3 feet). Capable of sucking up two megawatts of power while using its "jet swords" trench deep sea pipelines up to a meter wide and 2.5 meters deep into the sea floor (while operating at a depth of up to 1500m), the UT1 is clearly just in time. We hear the CIA errant anchors are due to snip another three or four deep-sea internet backbone cables, so the UT1's got its work cut out for it.

[tumnasgt @ Mar 22nd 2008 6:36AM]

The CIA really ought to be more careful when it lowers its anchors

[giuliop @ Mar 22nd 2008 6:41AM]

I'd really like this new "Gadget". Where can I buy it?

[Emor @ Mar 22nd 2008 10:35AM]

Ugh, 10 million big ones... if your serious, which I doubt. XD.
EMZ=]

[Randomness @ Mar 22nd 2008 7:00AM]

"Filed under: Storage"

..uhhh really?

[Jagannath A @ Mar 22nd 2008 7:04AM]

if only the real sea floors were that flat and smooth lol

[alex @ Mar 23rd 2008 3:03AM]

I map the sea floor for a living often for such things before the lay pipelines and cables ... and there places down there that are incredibly flat and boring....

[Craig Weems @ Mar 22nd 2008 7:53AM]

This is really nothing special to those familiar with the technology. Engadget should focus on the technologies that it knows something about unless it aims to be "Popular Mechanix" online.

[Slyrunks @ Mar 22nd 2008 1:33PM]

HEY, this piece is important because without equipment like this all of us would be using two cans and a string!

[Yubastard @ Mar 22nd 2008 2:32PM]

Aw man, you suck, big time. Let them write about everything, it's not like you're forced to read this and loose your precious time. It's not like all the news are for everyone, I happen to like this one, though.

[bob sakamano @ Mar 22nd 2008 8:21AM]

you guys do realize the time that he posted this... give him a break, what other news did you expect then?!?

[Galley @ Mar 22nd 2008 8:25AM]

I'd buy that for a dollar!

[Dolemite @ Mar 22nd 2008 3:28PM]

Sorry, this is not made by Omni Consumer Products.

[matt @ Mar 23rd 2008 11:05PM]

is that actually a robocop reference?

[ComradeZ @ Mar 22nd 2008 8:58AM]

"Laying pipe" under the sea? Welcome to the Mile Down Club, SMD!

[Henry @ Mar 22nd 2008 9:03AM]

*insert 70's porn music here*
"Somebody call a plumber? I'm here to lay some pipe..."

[Yubastard @ Mar 22nd 2008 2:35PM]

jaja LOL! 70's porn music rocks! chicka, chicka, wah, wah!!

[Matt @ Mar 22nd 2008 10:31AM]

The CIA Breaking those internet lines! lol

[Chuck L Heppner @ Mar 22nd 2008 11:00AM]

Trencher, ha!
The spooks must be mining methane hydrate from the ocean floor.
Critically pressurized volumes of methane gas exist beneath hydrate deposits on the sea bottom.
Any change in temp. or pressure @ these critically pressurized sites can cause hydrate to convert into methane gas. The highly pressurized gas can cause faults in the ocean floor to break apart, allowing the gas to escape.

The relics of massive underwater landslides that sprawl across continental margins, are most likely the result of ocean floor failures caused by overpressured methane gas. Tsunami?

Could this be a BlackProject that is coupled w/ HAARP?
The USAF released a white paper entitled, "Owning The Weather By 2025, A Force Multiplier."

Or not. http://weatherwars.info http://www.eastlundscience.com
http://www.chenier.org http://www.carnicom.com

Just kidding.

[tiuk @ Mar 22nd 2008 11:23AM]

"jet swords" officially wins the award for coolest word-pairing I've heard in my lifetime.

[Seoul Brother @ Mar 22nd 2008 11:37AM]

Hennnnh heh uhhh heh henh heh.... He said "laying pipe."

[derX @ Mar 22nd 2008 1:10PM]

This is the best onomatopoeic representation of laughter I've read in a very long time.

Dude, you so get modded up.

[Seoul Brother @ Mar 22nd 2008 1:23PM]

Thangyuh. thangyuvurrahmuch.

[OneLove @ Mar 22nd 2008 5:26PM]

...been "laying pipe in the briny deep" since i was 16. am i out of work?

[Wwhat @ Mar 22nd 2008 9:20PM]

Of course if some 3 letter acronym organisation with a decent budget would but one of those it could work in reverse and it could dig up and un-lay the line/pipes smoothly and quickly :o

[chachi8 @ Mar 23rd 2008 3:41AM]

Ryan, your continued usage of strikethrough text is < del >painfully cliche< /del > pure comic genius!

[Wwhat @ Mar 23rd 2008 12:21PM]

it's nub.

[Wwhat @ Mar 23rd 2008 12:25PM]

Oh wtf the comments strip html completely, I was saying it's STRIKE not DEL nub (teasingly)

<sigh>

[Wwhat @ Mar 23rd 2008 12:30PM]

and I'm wrong I see, <strike> (and <s>is depreciated and replaced by <del> which to me makes no sense at all.

Sorry for the triple post but I don't want to leave people with false information.

[nutflicks @ Mar 25th 2008 6:13PM]

Ouch.

[Tony @ Mar 24th 2008 1:42PM]

What, now $19.8 milion is only worth 10 BPS? Wow, that dollar is dropping like a brick...

[Hoof Hearted @ Mar 24th 2008 2:14PM]

I hope they don't use that picture above to market its "trenching ability." Looks to me to just be playing with its jet swords and not doing any actual work.

[kkowalczyk @ Mar 24th 2008 2:32PM]

Blahblahblah... underwater robotic overlords.

[Alex @ Mar 25th 2008 7:17AM]

My Uncle runs SMD, I had a look at it while it was being built, never thought it would make Engadget :)