New surface and underwater surveillance technology? Or not?

[Akimbo]

That type of operation would probably take days, maybe weeks or months?

Months for sure. A daily flyover would do the job. It can take half a day just to get into a 4-point moor.

 

[tursiops]

I suspect any boat big enough to dive from in open water might be visible from certain satellites, if anyone cared.
I also suspect it is not high priority to spend ANY money on.

 

[kelemvor]

I also suspect it is not high priority to spend ANY money on.

According to the article mentioned in the first post it's happening. Someone already decided to spend money on it.

That article is paywalled, but there are a few news sites that covered the story a day earlier. For example: Graves of WW2 sailors who went down with ships to be guarded by drones

It sounds like the Navy will be in the area in order to mess with China, so they're going to patrol the graves with drones while they are there. I bet that ends when the mission he's mentioning ends.

All the articles about this (until the recent one) were like 5 years ago. If nobody's been watching for the past 5 years, do we even know if they're not 100% gone at this point?

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Q1: (5 years ago) when the damage was discovered or when the damage happened?

I read it as when it was discovered. Likely it happened over a long time period, and many dives.​

Q2: Apart from the well-known flying drones what surface or underwater technology is involved?

Lots, but not for the purpose of scavenging wrecks.​

Q3: Only what is well known?

No way to tell, but not likely.​

Q4: Or is anything new to patrol underwater, being designed, publicly or in secret?

Yes​

Q5: What size of diving operation was likely the culprits?

Either massive (unlikely) or lots of dives/divers, a few at a time, over a long time period.
​

Many divers do not respect war graves or other protected sites. they take what they want, arguing that the sea will destroy it eventually anyway.
So much for leaving it for others to see and enjoy; it is a testosterones and ego-driven approach to diving.

Going to skip reading the article; this is the kind of clickbait "The Daily Fail" specializes in. That said, the problem is real and it is not small scale - for example the wreck of HMAS Perth, a 7,150-ton light cruiser, has been stripped of its gun turrets, starboard armor belt and hull plating, screws, and almost all propulsion machinery since 2013. That's not a couple guys with acetylene torches and lift bags; that's crane barges and explosives. The similarly-sized Dutch light cruisers HNLMS De Ruyter and Java, sunk in the same area, are completely gone within the past 15 years.

With that in mind, wide-area air and surface surveillance would be a better idea, and it's something regional powers would want to be doing anyway - the reason there are so many WWII wrecks in the straits of Indonesia is that it was a maritime choke point then as it is now, and besides whoever the bad actor of the decade might be the archipelago has long been a hotspot for more traditional forms of piracy.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Greece could really use any sort of technology to address the amount of looting that goes on there.

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

... not small scale - for example the wreck of HMAS Perth, a 7,150-ton light cruiser, has been stripped of its gun turrets, starboard armor belt and hull plating, screws, and almost all propulsion machinery since 2013. That's not a couple guys with acetylene torches and lift bags; that's crane barges and explosives. The similarly-sized Dutch light cruisers HNLMS De Ruyter and Java, sunk in the same area, are completely gone within the past 15 years.....

Crane barges etc., and the likely crew size and well armed :: sounds like that a armed police launch or small patrol boat sent against them, that could easily arrest 6 unauthorized weekend divers with sport scuba in an inflatable, would be in a similar position to a police dog barking at an elephant.

Likely some governments feel they must give more priority to combatting Al-Qaeda and Isis and suchlike on land.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Crane barges etc., and the likely crew size and well armed :: sounds like that a armed police launch or small patrol boat sent against them, that could easily arrest 6 unauthorized weekend divers with sport scuba in an inflatable, would be in a similar position to a police dog barking at an elephant.

Likely some governments feel they must give more priority to combatting Al-Qaeda and Isis and suchlike on land.

The Indonesian archipelago consists of about 17,000 islands (totalling about 1.9 million square kilometers of landmass, let alone the seas) and half the population is on just one of them (Java). Patrolling all that territory is not exactly a small order. The ships in question, while war graves and legally protected under international law, are Dutch, British, Australian, American, and Japanese vessels that were sunk before Indonesia existed as a nation. I can't say I'm surprised that patrolling for grave robbers is low on the local priority list.

Most of the war wrecks in this area were only recorded, or at least extensively documented, in the last 15-20 years (HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse were discovered not long after their sinking, but those are full-on capital ships and beyond recreational SCUBA depths). Overall the events that led to those sinkings don't feature on the highlight reels of the Allied navies; the elimination of Force Z and the total disintegration of the ABDA Command were almost entirely one-sided victories for the invading Japanese in the middle of what seemed like an unbroken string of such losses between December 1941 and April 1942.

 

[Jared0425]

On the Hamilton and Scourage wrecks that Canada stole from the US in Lake Ontario is monitored by a passive radar buoy. If a vessel lingers in the area for a half hour or more the buoy will transmit a live signal to the authorities. Talks have been ongoing about underwater measures also.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I do know that MAST in the UK is discussing with the British government to monitor some British historical wrecks via satellite. Cost is an issue.

 

[Celt]

Are these wrecks actually protected by international law, there’s no smash and grab operation going on without local approval. Someone is making money.