SAES is one of the Spanish companies taking part in the workshop of the ASW Barrier – Smart Defence Initiative, a multinational plan which aims to develop anti-submarine warfare barrier capabilities across the Alliance and supported by 11 countries, including Spain.
SAES has taken part in the ASW Barrier workshop within the NATO’s REP MUS 21 exercise (Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping Augmented by Maritime Unmanned Systems), held in Portugal from 13th to 24th September. As a company specialised in underwater acoustics and electronics, SAES participated in a conference where the ‘ASW Barrier – Smart Defence Initiative’ was presented to companies interested as well as in the following networking sessions to establish stronger ties among participants.
Around ten companies from Spain, France, Italy, UK and Australia have taken part in the ASW Barrier event, as well as representatives of the Armed forces from those countries, Portugal, Romania, and the NATO’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE).
The ASW Barrier project has a multinational approach and aims to develop the anti-submarine warfare barrier capabilities across the Alliance, and it is supported by 11 countries: Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, the UK and the US. The SDI is sponsored by NATO’s Maritime Unmanned Systems (MUS) initiative.
Some of the main objectives of the ASW Barrier plan include from improving the anti-submarine warfare systems to going in depth in the fusion of different sensors information to facilitate decision-making as well as the use of marine unmanned systems.
REP MUS 2021
REP MUS 21 consist of large-scale unmanned systems exercises in a multinational and cooperative environment where Academia, Armed forces and industry from different countries engage in technological experimentation activities and procedures and tactics for MUS in real-life operational scenarios.
Navantia (the Spanish state-owned shipbuilding company) is showing at REP MUS 21 its USV Vendaval: the first aluminum boat USV / Unmanned Surface Vessel with autonomous navigation capacity, already in active operation in the Ceuta Port Authority (Spain).
SAES is collaborating with Navantia in a variety of initiatives to develop the underwater sensor capabilities Viento Class USV, to be used on both civil and defence applications.