Remote-controlled robot to play starring role in effort to find military munitions dumped at sea

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A remote-controlled robot will play a key role in a new project aimed at locating bombs and chemical weapons the military dumped off the coast of Oahu nearly a century ago.

Researchers at UH-Manoa say Hawaii’s sea floor is littered with upwards of 100,000 rotting military munitions, some of which are believed to be very close to shore. HNN Investigates was there recently as crews prepared to test new technology designed to pinpoint the lost explosives.

HNN Investigates

For nearly a century, the ocean has hidden a part of Hawaii’s history most people know nothing about: At the end of World War II, the military sunk a portion of its wartime arsenal.

Most of the dumpsites were never documented.

“Back then your options were to burn the munitions, to bury the munitions or to dispose of them at sea. And disposing them at sea was seen as the least harmful option,” said University of Hawaii at Manoa Applied Research Laboratory director Margo Edwards.

Fast forward to today and “we find munitions in feet of water. That’s in Hilo. That’s here. That’s you know, potentially even over in Molokai,” Edwards said.

Underwater video taken in 2021 shows three unexploded ordnance on the ocean floor about 300 yards off Lanai’s south shore. The explosives were reported by two recreational divers.

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The University of Hawaii is at the forefront a new effort to find these decaying munitions in places people are most likely to come in contact with them.

The Department of Defense recently approved a two-year project allowing the school to develop a Maritime Test Range Complex — a place for engineers from all over the world to test their technology to see if it works.

A remote-controlled robot that belongs to the university will play a big part in making that happen.

“Out here on the water we have an uncrewed surface vessel, which is a platform onto which we can set up sensors that can monitor things in the water,” said University of Hawaii at Manoa Applied Research Laboratory technical program manager Martine Bissonette.

Some of the gadgets tested will be mounted onto the robot before their sent out to sea.

“The way we’re going to do that is by setting up surrogates or fake munitions that are safe to see if their techs can do the detection we’re expecting,” Bissonnette said.

But before the launch of the Maritime Test Range Complex later this summer, UH is doing some test runs with the robot at Sand Island.

After nearly a century on the sea floor it’s unclear the impact lost munitions could have on the environment. It’s why researchers say efforts like this are crucial.

“They were made of steel. Steel rusts,” Edwards said.

“We don’t know, for example, if they’ve been leaking what was inside of them for a long period of time or if something catastrophic is going to happen tomorrow and what was a previously intact bomb is going to go poof and release a bunch of toxic material into the environment.”

Hawaii isn’t the only place where the issue of lost munitions are a problem. UH says there are similar dump sites off countries all over the world.

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