Luxembourg, 21 August 2020 – The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) established a cooperative agreement with the Center for Maritime Research & Experimentation (CMRE) to provide the Italian Navy with innovative capabilities within the maritime research domain (research, development and testing). A project was initiated within this agreement in June 2020, and it has already completed its first milestone ; that comprehended preliminary investigation & analysis.
The following step includes the development of an underwater noise detection and acoustic signature predictive model, through a combination of floating & submerged hardware elements (sonobuoys, underwater sensors) and systems algorithms.
The collective competence employed from CMRE, the Italian Navy and NSPA will facilitate the development of a prototype system from CMRE, with the ability to sense, comprehend, predict, communicate, plan, make decisions and take appropriate actions, supporting the Italian Navy to achieve their mission goals.
NSPA is responsible to lead this project under the Random Brokerage Projects framework. This is the first cooperation agreement between NSPA and CMRE, through the envisaged cooperative framework and the developed legal instruments, NSPA may exploit potential similar opportunities with other NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO) bodies, in support of their research and development portfolios.