I hope I'll be forgiven for appropriating the #30DayMapChallenge out of the theme's recommended context.

The San Bernardino Strait historical wreck survey has been publicised to run 5th thru 18th Nov. At this time, it's expected that the survey's 14 day window will simply 'slide to the right' on the calendar.

The vessel arrived at Singapore equipped with & ready to operate three AUVs.

Philippines National Museums, Allen Exploration/AllenX, & OI are to conduct an exploratory survey in the San Bernadino Strait for WW2 & Spanish colonial wrecks.
Once Armada 86 05 is readied, expect it & AllenX's 'Axis' support vessel to make way for the strait that separates Luzon & Samar islands.

Slightly larger vessel, same AUV complement. Some operational efficiencies may be feasible. But I'd expect comparable nett covereage rate.
The FRB, available to assist AUV recovery, is std A86 delivered equipment, ex-Vard (A78s required an addit'l small deck, port side, for FRB & its LARS).

Three. An A86 beam is circa 1.4m wider than an A78. A78 06 carried three during the early 2025 mission (a standard CCU/container is 2.4m wide).

Carl Allen’s Damen built ‘Axis’ support vessel also arrived in Singapore in recent days. There’s a tropical cyclone bearing down on the Philippines just south of the San Bernadino Strait, that’s likely to affect the AllenX project schedule.

Yes, gradually checking A86s off the ‘production line’ & into service.
Progression is faster for A86s following the initial experience of the A78s.
Only A86 04 & 06 now remaining at the Vard jetty.
Headline role is geotech/geophys surveys but self-contained AUV shelters can be readily mobilised.

We're maintaining a watch on the assets that will likely be deployed.
In the meantime, OI is contributing to a survey with Carl Allen's AllenX/Allen Exploration organisation. AllenX has teamed up with Philippines Nat'l Museum to look for wrecks in the San Bernadino Strait south of Luzon Island.

I don't believe that there is anything to 'understand' as you put it.
Consider that the event (the loss of 9M-MRO) is the consequence of something so irrational, how does one attempt to extract any understanding from that?
The max altitude is not supported by a confirmed observation.

A golf course, as a barrier, rather than a wall 😂

I have yet to see any writer address the density of distribution for organisms such as barnacles. Again, the western seas typically show much denser chlorophyll (hence, plankton - food) distribution from EO sat observations.

The many drift analyses produce different results. The important windage consideration varies widely. The SEC passing Rodrigues, Mauritius, Réunion funnels the E to W current flow so discrimination is hard (hence so many varying results).⬇️

Straightforward: many well worked through analyses, properly weighting the many factors point to where it has been indicated that search be conducted.
What have you got?

There are other companies/organisations who might field AUVs in a 4500m-6000m deep ocean serach. However, I don’t believe any are as ‘integrated’ or capable as OI. Deep Sea Vision have expressed interest.
The seafloor along much of the 7th arc (S of Diamantina) is challenging.

Well, they have stepped up themselves. It’s not as if anyone had to pick.

I was alluding more to ‘search with what’ rather than ‘where to search’.

I'm sure you know where useful information won't be found 😉

We're maintaining a watch on the assets that will likely be deployed.
In the meantime, OI is contributing to a survey with Carl Allen's AllenX/Allen Exploration organisation. AllenX has teamed up with Philippines Nat'l Museum to look for wrecks in the San Bernadino Strait south of Luzon Island.