The European Commission has published the projects selected under the 2022 European Defence Fund (EDF). 

The SWAT-SHOAL project, funded with 25 million euros, has been selected in the category of Underwater Warfare. The aim of the project is to develop and implement the concept of a System of Systems (SoS) that integrates different types of manned and unmanned vehicles in a swarm to achieve greater efficiency in underwater missions, such as surveillance, reconnaissance, mine warfare, collaborative engagements or support for amphibious operations. 

According to the company’s announcement, the focus is put on innovative technologies like swarming, underwater communications and autonomous operation to augment the versatility and future naval forces’ capabilities in the underwater domain.

Also read: Agreement between Swarmly Aero and Arkeocean in Nicosia for the development of Unmanned Underwater Systems

The scope will cover the different mission phases (deployment of swarms, initial self-organization, path planning, task accomplishment and swarm recovery) as well as the integration with Command-and-Control Systems, including the interaction with elements such as sonobuoys, divers or support vessels. 

The main phases of SWAT-SHOAL are operational concept definition, technologies research and validation through simulation & seawater demonstration.

The SWAT-SHOAL consortium is composed of 20 entities, including Large Caps, RTOs, SMEs and Mid Caps of 11 nations, all playing a key role: Navantia as main coordinator, Sener as technical coordinator, Adyta LDA, Akademia Marynarki Wojennej, ATLAS ELEKTRONIK GmbH, Cafa Tech Ou, Develogic GmbH, Fincantieri Nextech Spa, Fraunhofer, GMV Aerospace and Defence, Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, Naval Group Belgium, Naval Group France, Saab Kockums, Sea Europe, Lukasiewicz Instytut, Saes, SOTIRIA Technology and WTD71.

SOTIRIA Technology’s team will research, design and develop sensing and navigation technologies to be deployed on-board the team of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs). Those technologies will be fielded in seawater demonstrations by the end of the project.

Additionally, the 2nd Greek company participating in the consortium, Prisma Electronics, designs, develops and produces a wide range of IT products, wireless systems and integrated electronics in a variety of sectors such as agriculture, museums, shipping, land transport, defence and aerospace.

SWAT-SHOAL results will generate important competitive advantages by defining new defence products and markets, many of them with dual-use potential, as well as positioning the European products on existing markets.

Also read: 𝐒𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐗 | Participation in the n𝐞𝐰 𝐄𝐃𝐅 d𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 PASITHEA