The Italian Navy is studying the construction of a new drone carrier, capable of launching and recovering unmanned fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft for intelligence and surveillance activities. The progress of this project, called “Sciamano Drone Carrier”, will be presented during “Sea Drone Tech Summit 2024”, the fourth edition of the national congress on marine robotics, which will take place on 29 and 30 October at the Aquatic Center of the Italian Swimming Federation in Ostia (Rome). “The navies of several countries around the world are working on ‘drone carrier’ projects, such as in Spain, Turkey, the United States and even China,” confirms Luciano Castro, president of the congress. “In the current geostrategic scenarios, in fact, the use of these new naval units equipped with various types of aerial drones, but also naval and underwater, will make it possible to carry out a series of wide-ranging intelligence and surveillance missions and also to jam and saturate adversary defenses through swarms of drones”.
The “Sciamano Drone Carrier” project, funded by the National Military Research Plan, has been entrusted to Fincantieri in order to define the “concept design” of this new drone carrier, which will also include an advanced command, control and communication system for the operational management of swarms of unmanned vehicles with the related launch and recovery systems. After all, the Navy has been using drones on its ships for some time. In June 2023, in fact, on the offshore patrol vessel “Paolo Thaon di Revel” the armed forces presented the new version of the “AWHero”, a remote-controlled mini-helicopter of the 200-kilogram class produced by Leonardo. In November last year, moreover, on board the frigate “Carlo Bergamini”, the first Remotely Piloted Aircraft section of the Italian Navy carried out for the first time two launches and as many recoveries of the fixed-wing drone “ScanEagle” produced by the American Boeing. And just last March, the Defense Committee of the House approved a program that will allow the Navy to acquire up to 14 fixed-wing and rotary-wing drones. The armed forces also employ underwater robots, including the “Hugin 1000” of the Norwegian Kongsberg Maritime and the “Pluto Gigas” and “Multipluto” of the Italian Gaymarine.
“Sea Drone Tech Summit 2024” is organized by the cultural association Ifimedia and Mediarkè, in collaboration with the Municipality X of the Municipality of Rome, the Roma Tre University (Department of Industrial, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering and Department of Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Aeronautical Technologies), the Interuniversity Center of Integrated Systems for the Marine Environment (ISME) and the National Technological Cluster Economy of the Sea (BIG Cluster). The congress program includes the interventions of over 25 high-level speakers in sessions dedicated to underwater robots, unmanned surface boats and aerial drones for marine applications. The activities of the new National Pole of the Underwater Dimension (PNS) of the Navy in La Spezia and the second edition of the PwC Strategy&Italia research on the marine robotics market will also be presented. Institutions, universities, research centers, companies, startups and operators, in the civil and military sectors, will participate in the event. A large exhibition area will also be available with the desks of about fifteen institutions and companies in the sector, which will present their vehicles in static exhibition. There will also be some operational demonstrations in the tank and in the sea. To participate, you must register online and purchase a nominative pass.
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