Folgiero: “Designed for the protection, development and maintenance of critical underwater infrastructures, but also for the monitoring and protection of the marine environment. Pinotti: “There is great interest in the sector from private entities as well”
La Spezia – Fincantieri has defined it as a “system of systems”. It was designed for the protection, development and maintenance in service of critical underwater infrastructures, as well as for the monitoring and protection of the marine environment. It is called Deep, an acronym for Dynamic Ecosystem for Enhanced Performance, and was presented and launched in La Spezia at the Navy’s Naval Support and Experimentation Centre.
“The strength of this project is that it is a solution, which integrates technology that fulfills its mission – said Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO of Fincantieri – In the underwater world, there are integrable objects and others that provide the character of the technology. We have integrated the characterizing elements, in this case the command and control system. The second crucial part is that of communication. There is a lot of electronics, there is the physical vehicle and there are the objects created by GraalTech. The protection of underwater infrastructures has been underestimated worldwide, but today hybrid warfare is more relevant than ever. The defense industry must accelerate and change its skin.”
The system is organized into four components. A network of fiber-optic hydrophones with an alarm system function mounted on tripods that can be installed at depths greater than 300 m below sea level; a fleet of underwater drones (X300 developed by GraalTech) for the identification of any threat through sonar, video cameras and parametric probes; a data management platform called Ums, usable even in the absence of a GPS signal. The drones are equipped with algorithms based on artificial intelligence for image processing and recognition of elements of the underwater environment. Furthermore, the system can be expanded with a surface base dedicated to the drones, a launch and recovery system and a radar capable of identifying low-signature aerial threats.
That the sector is in the spotlight is easily said. As announced by the former Minister of Defense and current president of the Fondazione Polo nazionale della dimensione subacquea, Roberta Pinotti, 180 million in funds are coming to the sector over 10 years and there is also great interest from private entities.
“These are only the public funds, but there are many private entities interested in investing. As a Foundation, we are already registering great interest.
“Today, the development of technologies requires an amount of funds that the public sector alone cannot cover – added Pinotti, who explained that regarding Deep, “the work was largely done at the National Underwater Dimension Hub and I believe the result is exciting, Fincantieri also managed to achieve it in a very short time: it was hypothesized and tested here and this gives an idea of what the Underwater Hub can be used for.”
Folgiero said that Fincantieri’s expectations for the underwater hub are to reach a turnover of 800 million euros by 2027. The Italian group, the CEO added, is always ready to strengthen the alliance with the Germans of Tkms (submarines and frigates, 9,000 employees, over 7 billion dollars in market capitalization and 18.6 billion euros in order portfolio), after the parent company Thyssenkrupp decided to launch the spin-off of the company.
Also speaking at the event were the Undersecretary for Defense, Matteo Perego di Cremnago, the Mayor of La Spezia, Pierluigi Peracchini, the Chief of Staff of the Liguria Region, Massimiliano Nannini, the Chief of Staff of the Navy, Admiral Enrico Credendino and, for Fincantieri, the Chairman, Biagio Mazzotta, the Director of the Military Ships Division, Eugenio Santagata, and the Executive Vice President Underwater, Gabriele Maria Cafaro.
