At OCEAN 2020 (Open Cooperation for European mAritime awareNess), the Company ECA Group has demonstrated during sea trials the combined use of drones for situational awareness and threat response at sea. The Company has demonstrated its capability to use ECA Group naval drones system (AUV, ROV, and USV) from a control centre on board a warship.

During OCEAN 2020, ECA GROUP has deployed its INSPECTOR 90 unmanned surface vehicle (USV), fitted to launch and recover the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) SEASCAN. (Picture source ECA Group)

OCEAN 2020 (Open Cooperation for European mAritime awareNess) is an EU-funded project implemented by the European Defence Agency (EDA) aiming at enhancing maritime surveillance and situational awareness, through the successful integration of manned and unmanned systems. Coordinated by Leonardo, the project is bringing together the technical excellence and wide operational experience from 42 partners from 15 countries, all involved in the Maritime Defence domain, to identify operational needs and scenarios to collaborate at the European level.

As part of this project, a demonstration was conducted in the Mediterranean Sea in late November 2019 hosted by the Italian Navy in Taranto. The purpose was to demonstrate how heterogeneous unmanned assets could provide in real-time a maritime picture of the theatre of operations to a command centre located in a stand-off distance on land.

During the demonstration, ECA GROUP has deployed its INSPECTOR 90 unmanned surface vehicle (USV), fitted to launch and recover the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) SEASCAN. Moreover, the USV acted as a communication relay between the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) A9 and the control and command center.

The joint and cooperative use of manned and unmanned vehicles were integrated into a naval unit command and control system, allowing real time data exchange via satellite to the European Maritime Operations Centre (MOC) located in the European Defence Agency in Brussels.

The demonstration confirmed the successful exchange of the information collected from the different vehicles deployed in the area of operations, to create a comprehensive maritime picture.