The Diplomat
The Unmanned Semifixed Sea Platforms (USSPs) project, in which Navantia is participating, has been selected to receive funding from the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) 2020 in the field of Maritime Surveillance.
The USSPs project is valued at 19.5 million euros and will receive 12.8 million euros in European funding. It is the largest of the 26 projects selected in the EDIDP 2020 call.
USSPs will develop a prototype unmanned, highly autonomous, energy-efficient platform based on miniaturised oil platform technologies and with a wide range of airborne, surface and underwater sensors. It will be deployable in any geographical area, including deep waters, and in adverse environmental conditions, making it highly versatile in its operations, according to Navantia.
The aim of the initiative is to integrate the necessary systems and assets through innovative solutions to improve maritime surveillance capabilities, reduce the use of resources and mission costs, and provide persistent and permanent maritime situational awareness in all areas.
A total of 15 European companies are participating in USSPs, from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Spain, France, Greece, Ireland and the Netherlands, coordinated by the Greek company ETME.
Navantia’s participation will be in the areas of command and control systems, platform control, light weapons systems, unmanned vehicles, electrical plant and technical support. For Navantia, the project involves some 25,000 hours of work, with highly qualified personnel during the three and a half years that the project lasts.
Also participating in the project are the companies Applied Intelligence Analytics Limited (Ireland), Naval Group (France), Prolexia (France), Multimedia Workshop (Bulgaria), Sener Aerospace (Spain), Signalerix Limited (Cyprus), SMTS Designer and Constructors (Netherlands), Stichting Maritiem Research Instituut Nederland (Netherlands), Techlam (France), Tecnobit (Spain) and Utek (Spain) together with CyRIC-Cyprus Research and Innovation Center and the Greek Research and Technology Foundation.
USSPs is one of the 26 projects selected by EDIDP in what will be its last financial cycle. In the 2019 call, Navantia participated in the selected project SEA DEFENCE together with other European shipyards.
EDIDP, aimed at promoting collaboration between European defence companies for the development of new solutions, is one of the precursors of the European Defence Fund (EDF), which has just launched its first call for proposals. These tools aim to foster a European industrial and technological base in the field of defence, which is innovative and competitive and thus contributes to the EU’s strategic autonomy.
