The main purpose of underwater defenses for these countries -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain -- is to protect vulnerable oil and gas facilities offshore and coastal terminals from underwater attack.

In recent months, according to defense industry sources, the Gulf states have been examining their options with regard to sabotage operations as tension with Iran has increased.

The Islamic Republic has an array of naval forces capable of mounting such attacks, including mini-submarines, large frogman units and mine-laying ships. The naval wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in particular has dedicated underwater warfare units.

Delegations from the Gulf Cooperation Council states have been looking at a wide range of Western-manufactured systems, including unmanned submarines that can track hostile frogmen and other threats.

One European company, ECA of Toulon, France, recently presented an array of systems for the Gulf navies.

These included the Alister 3000 autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle, the Inspector unmanned surface vehicle and the K-Ster mine-killer vehicle.

The Alister can be used to maintain surveillance of offshore deepwater oil and gas fields, or to inspect seabed pipelines. The K-Ster expendable mine disposal system carries a tiltable warhead that is used to destroy sea mines.

Reson of Denmark has displayed its SeaBat 7128 high-resolution, forward-looking sonar system designed to detect mines and underwater threats for the Gulf navies, along with the SeaBat 7112 multibeam sonar for detecting enemy divers.

In a separate development, the U.S. Navy has started deploying long-endurance unmanned underwater gliders in the Gulf for the first time.

These were used to provide over-the-horizon rapid environmental assessment to support mine-hunting operations during the nine-day Arabian Gauntlet 09 exercise in April that also involved British, Australian, French, Pakistani and seven regional warships.

Developed by Teledyne Webb Research of the U.S. and deployed from Avenger-class mine countermeasure vessels, the Slocum Glider craft were piloted by remote control by U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office personnel from the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi using Iridium satellite links.

According to Jane's International Defense Review, the 5-foot-long Slocum is a torpedo-shaped autonomous winged underwater craft that can stay at sea for up to 30 days because its power usage is minimal.

It is programmed to surface periodically to transmit raw data via satellite to the Oceanographic Office operations center at Stennis Space Center.

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