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OCEAN2020, the largest European funded defence research project for maritime surveillance coordinated by Leonardo, successfully completed the execution of the second sea demonstration, held on the 25 and 26 of August at Hano Bight, off the southern coast of Sweden, with the participation of European companies, research institutes and defence ministries from 10 different EU Countries.
The sea demonstration showed how the information collected from the assets deployed in the area of operations could be integrated to create a Recognised Maritime Picture (RMP).
Building on the experience matured during the first sea demonstration led by Leonardo in the Gulf of Taranto, the second sea demonstration focused on two scenarios:
- surveillance, interdiction and engagement of multiple surface threats
- detection and identification of an underwater threat and the detection of hostile intruders in friendly coastal areas.
The demonstration enabled the achievement of a number of objectives, such as launch and recovery of unmanned surface systems from vessel, unmanned Systems autonomy, Integration between unmanned systems and naval Combat Management Systems (CMSs), fusion and display of information from UxS by CMS and transmission to the EU Maritime Operation Centre (EU- MOC) as well as use of satellite assets to collect and provide data for augmenting situational awareness.
The second sea demonstration saw the participation of 12 unmanned systems of different type, aerial, surface and underwater: UAS SW-4 Solo (Leonardo), UAS Patroller (Safran), UAS Cobra (Bluebear), USS Sea Raider (TNO), USS Water Strider (IOSB), USS Enforcer III (Saab), USS Piraya (Saab), UUS DeDAve (IOSB), UUS Oceanscan (TNO), UUS Biondo (CMRE), UUS Sea Wasp (Saab) and UUS Gavia (GMV Portugal), with one manned aircraft equipped with new generation airborne radar (Hensoldt).
In addition, four Naval Units were involved:
- Swedish Navy HMS Pelikanen controlling USS Piraya and supporting UUS Biondo
- Lithuanian Navy P11 Žemaitis operating CMS ATHENA-C (Leonardo) and deploying a team of Special Operation Forces with a RHIB
- German MOD R/V Planet operating an experimental C2 (IOSB) and controlling USS Water Strider and UUS UUS DeDAve
- Polish Navy Minehunter Czajka operating a ROV and deploying a Portuguese Navy Diving Team with the UUS Gavia
Image Credit: Leonardo S.p.A.