Navantia participates in three projects selected by the European Commission in the area of Defense

Research and development projects

The selected projects, framed within the strategic objectives of the Ministry of Defense and the Navy, are valued at 221 million euros.

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La European Commission has selected the research and development projects corresponding to the European Defense Fund (EDF) of 2022, three of them with the participation of Navantia: SWAT-SHOAL, E-NACSOS and EUROGUARD. In this way, the company reinforces its position in the main areas of technological development such as collaborative naval operations, autonomous navigation and combined missions with swarms of underwater and surface drones.

The project SWAT SHOAL It is led by Navantia and 20 entities from 11 countries participate, including Spanish ones. SENER, SAES and GMV. It develops the concept of a System of Systems that integrates different types of manned and unmanned vehicles in a swarm to achieve greater effectiveness in underwater missions, such as surveillance, reconnaissance, mine warfare, collaborative engagements or support for amphibious operations. Navantia thus strengthens its position as an integrator of swarms of unmanned vehicles in Command and Control Systems, both underwater and surface, increasing interoperability in the naval domain.

On the other hand, the objective of E-NACOS project is to define the European standard for the exchange and fusion of real-time sensor information between Combat Systems, which will strengthen collaborative surveillance in European naval forces and increase the effectiveness of naval anti-aircraft and surface operations. The scope includes the implementation of national demonstrators from the participating countries, contemplating both simulated tests and sea tests with real units. The program is led by the French company Naval Group and in addition to Navantia, Spain also participates Indra and the University of Vigo.

The project EUROGUARD, led by the Estonian company Baltic Workboats, will combine cutting-edge and innovative technologies to develop and build the prototype of a versatile, first-in-class, medium-sized semi-autonomous naval surface vessel. Operational tests of the prototype will be carried out in a real environment, including the ground control station that Navantia will develop and from which all the ship's systems will be monitored and controlled, and these developments may be scalable to other future types of autonomous and semi-autonomous European ships.

These three projects, which will begin execution from December 2023, represent a global amount of €221 million and will contribute to Navantia's strategy of being at the technological forefront of defense companies in Europe.

In this way, Navantia continues its line of collaboration with the main European defense companies, a strategy that has already received the support of the EDF in projects such as the design and construction of the European Corvette (EPC), the development of the digital platform of the next generation of European combat ships (EDINAF), the Multi-domain Combat Cloud (EDOCC), the future hypersonic missile defense system (HYDEF), the structural monitoring of naval platforms in combat (dTHOR), the inertial navigation and quantum gravimeter (Q-SiNG), autonomous off-shore maritime surveillance platforms (USSPs) or the prospecting of technologies for future naval platforms (SEA DEFENCE).