The project’s goal is to develop a concept of systems-of-systems based on swarming technologies to integrate manned and unmanned naval assets

The SWArm and Teaming operation of manned and unmanned underwater vehicle SHOAL (SWAT-SHOAL) project held its kick-off meeting last week in Brussels after being selected by the European Commission under the European Defence Fund (EDF2022).

The event was attended by 20 partners from all over Europe, such as project coordinator Navantia from Spain, Naval Group Belgium, Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (Norway), Atlas Elektronik, Naval Group (France), Saab Kockums (Sweden), and Fincantieri NexTech (Italy). Other partners included SEA Europe (Belgium), Develogic, Fraunhofer, WTD71 (Germany); Prisma Electronics, Akademia Marynarki Wojennej, PIAP (Poland), Adyta (Portugal), GMV, Sener, and SAES (Spain). Inge Ceuppens, Commission Project Officer in charge of SWAT-SHOAL, and her deputy, Michal Olexa, also participated in the event.

The project aims to develop a concept of systems-of-systems based on swarming technologies to integrate manned and unmanned naval assets. The idea is to collaborate to achieve outstanding performance and efficiency in a broad spectrum of underwater missions against moving subsurface threats. The system is conceived to enable different vehicle types – working in a team as a single unit and facing more complex scenarios – or be organised as a squad, assigning a defined task to each platform.

“The Navantia team is very much looking forward to this collaboration, in which we see the opportunity to improve the way European navies can face underwater threats using Artificial Intelligence. We are delighted to coordinate such an ambitious project,” said Victor Moreno Ortiz, SWAT-SHOAL Project Coordinator.