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Launch and Recovery of Manned and Unmanned Vehicles from Surface Platforms: Current and Future Trends Sheraton Barcelo Hotel, Annapolis, Maryland November 8-9, 2005

Unmanned vehicles are increasingly becoming integrated into the day-to-day operations of naval and commercial maritime operations, from ocean platform inspection, to search-and-rescue, to surface and antisubmarine warfare. At the same time the use of small manned vehicles is also on the rise, whether high-speed boats on Coast Guard ships or helicopters on research vessels. The need to operate both manned and unmanned vehicles from the same platform is of increasing importance, and so the means to quickly and safely launch and recover a wide variety of such vehicles - which are evolving at a rapid pace -- is an area of intense research and development in both the naval and commercial maritime sectors.