The basic model is made by Florida Atlantic University for research and oil rigs Marco and his team take these apart and improve them, giving them new propellers and batteries that allow them to stay submerged for longer, and a computerised brain that will enable them to hunt for submarines in deep water.įor half a century, big missile submarines, known as boomers, have been arguably the most decisive weapon systems in modern warfare – the queen on the strategic chessboard – because of their capacity to remain unseen until the critical moment, unleashing enormous destructive force without warning. Marco is working on a partially disassembled robot on a trestle, its innards laid out on a bench in a row: motor, on-board computer and sonar equipment. “Because it is smaller, with a tight group of people from across Nato, there is far less red tape.” They were very quiet about it,” Marco says. In their laid-back, Mediterranean manner, the small mixed team of specialists on the Ligurian coast between Genoa and Pisa have made some striking advances. He had never heard of CMRE and was surprised by what he found. Marco, a wiry Italian-American in jeans and a white T-shirt (he cannot give his surname for security reasons), was working at a US Navy robotics workshop in Connecticut when he was seconded to La Spezia.
But the technicians here insist they are working on the state of the art.
It has far bigger, better funded – and much more secretive – counterparts in the US, Russia and China. The CMRE at La Spezia is not alone in this field. Several will be able to stay submerged for months, eventually for years, only surfacing to report an encounter with an enemy submarine. They may look like large bright yellow torpedoes, but they are in fact underwater drones, capable of being remote controlled on the surface and taking autonomous actions in the deep. In a line of workshops along the quay, technicians tinker at the innards of the next generation of naval weapons. As one battleship after another has been removed from what remains of the Italian navy, and the base is wound down, the centre is preparing for a new kind of marine warfare amid the wreckage of the old. This is Nato’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE). But amid the crumbling masonry, there is an incongruously neat little building, shaded behind a line of flags, with smartly outfitted security men behind its glass doors. The grand Mussolini-era barracks are shuttered the weeds won their battle with the concrete some time ago. Twice, actually, because the woman he was driving to see that day, Daphne Larkin, later became his wife.īut if you were to visit Bliss today, you will find those grassy hills replaced by vines and industrial tractors.T he naval base at La Spezia in northern Italy is in an advanced state of decay. Really strange."Įxcept that Bliss is an icon - a simple and untouched photograph that has become iconic, like a modern day version of Ansel Adams' moon rising over Yosemite's Half Dome. And yet, "His legend will be that one photograph. She's proud of the coffee table books they have produced about wine. She's proud of his two cover photos earned in 25 years with National Geographic. "Oh, there are so many other wonderful pictures," his wife Daphne said. O'Rear will not say how much Microsoft paid him for the transparency, only, "It's the most I ever received for a photograph."Īnd yet, Bliss occupies only a small piece of wall in a side room of O'Rear's home in St. "We're guessing billions of people have seen it because it's on 500 million XP programs," O'Rear said.
#WINDOWS XP BACKGROUND WITH SUBMARINE WINDOWS#
That's what happens when Microsoft buys one of your photos, names it, 'Bliss,' and makes it the default for Windows XP. "I had no idea it would become the most recognized photograph on the planet," O'Rear said. Since O'Rear is a photographer, he raised his camera to take four pictures. "A storm had just passed through," he recalled. O'Rear knew he liked Northern California's green hills, blue sky, and white clouds, so he got out of his car and went for a walk that beautiful day. "I was sort of looking for it, but I didn't know where to find it," he said. (KGO) - If you're looking for Bliss, it's on private property, but it's clearly visible just off Highway 121 in Sonoma County.Ĭhuck O'Rear is neither the Pope nor the Dali Lami, but without question, he's the world's foremost expert on Bliss.īack when he drove this road in 1998, Bliss was elusive for him, too.
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