Hellenic Participation in EU / EDA Maritime Surveillance Technologies Program OCEAN2020

INTRACOM Defense Electronics (IDE), ALTUS LSA (ALTUS), BARRACUDA and the University of Athens, Department of Informatics and Telecommunications participate in OCEAN2020, the most important project related to the first European Defense Fund’s initiative to boost Europe's defence capabilities. The project was issued by the European Union under the ‘Preparatory Action on Defense Research’ and was selected for funding through a competitive procedure that was conducted by the European Defense Agency.

The OCEAN2020 team, which is led by the Italian company Leonardo, comprises of 42 partners from 15 European countries, including the Ministries of Defense of Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Lithuania, with additional support from the Ministries of Defense of Sweden, France, the United Kingdom, Estonia and the Netherlands.

OCEAN2020 is the first example of a cross-European military research programme under the Preparatory Action initiative. It will integrate unmanned platforms of different type (fixed wing, rotary wing, surface and underwater) with naval units’ command and control centers, allowing data exchange via satellite with command and control centers on land. It will involve two live demonstrations of maritime surveillance and interdiction operations in the Mediterranean and Baltic Sea, conducted by European fleets using unmanned aircraft, surface vessels and underwater systems.

All Greek partners are expected to contribute significantly in the success of the OCEAN2020 project. Specifically, IDE in co-operation with BARRACUDA, a Greek Shipyard specialized in military boats, will provide to the consortium an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) that will be used in the maritime surveillance and interdiction operations in the Mediterranean Sea. IDE is also responsible for different tasks related to the requirements analysis of the USVs, to the communication architectures and technologies that will be used in the consortium and to the security of communications (COMSEC) and information (INFOSEC). Moreover, IDE will be the single Point of Contact and Coordinator of the consortium with the Hellenic Ministry of Defense.

ALTUS will participate in tasks related to operational scenario modelling and simulation and to training needs analysis and design, while University of Athens, Department of Informatics and Telecommunications will participate in tasks related to deployment modelling of unmanned platforms.