Chinese academics have christened an ocean research vessel that has a twist: it will sail the seas with a complement of aerial and ocean-going drones and no human crew. The Zhu Hai Yun, or Zhuhai Cloud, launched in Guangzhou after a year of construction. The 290-foot-long mothership can hit a top speed of 18 knots (about 20 miles per hour) and will carry 50 flying, surface, and submersible drones that launch and self-recover autonomously. According to this blurb from the shipbuilder behind its construction, the Cloud will also be equipped with a variety of additional observational instruments "which can be deployed in batches in the target sea area, and carry out task-oriented adaptive networking to achieve three-dimensional view of specific targets." Most of the ship is an open deck where flying drones can land and be stored.

A lifeboat crew is trialling drones for use in sea search and rescue operations in what is thought to be a world first. The independent lifeboat service at Caister, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, has a fleet of drones fitted with lights and cameras which feed live video footage back to screens on the boat. This gives the lifeboat crew a better view of the water, and helps them find a person more quickly - potentially the difference between life and death. The drones launch from the front of the boat and perform an automatic box search around it. This gives the lifeboat crew a better view of the water, and helps them find a person more quickly - potentially the difference between life and death.