Seafuture: Where naval, defence and maritime industry, technological innovation, blue economy meet
The eight edition of Seafuture exhibition and business convention, which opened its doors on 5 June at the Italian Navy’s La Spezia naval base with a ceremony attended by the Italian Minister of Defence, Honourable Guido Crosetto, the chief of Italian Defence, admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chief of Italian Navy, admiral Enrico Credendino, the head of Italian MoD General Secretariat/ National Armaments Directorate general Luciano Portolano, regional and local civilian authorities, registered record numbers in terms of exhibiting national and international companies and spaces, visiting delegations and attendees. Organized by Italian Blue Growth company headed by Cristiana Pagni with the cooperation of Italian Navy, the latest edition of Seafuture sees the participation of around 300 exhibiting entities among companies, small and medium enterprises, start-ups, national and international organizations, armed and police forces, with around 80 companies coming from 11 European countries, Canada and US, presenting themselves, products and services on a covered area of 35,000 square meters.
The welcomed 71 foreign navies and defence procurement delegations got the opportunity to visit their stands together with twelve among first and second line vessels, boats and underwater platforms from Italian Navy, national and foreign shipbuilders and defence companies. The Italian Navy was presenting the Thaon di Revel Pattugliatore Polivalente d’Altura (PPA), the Marceglia anti-surface configured FREMM, the Romei U212A air independent propulsion (AIP) submarine, all built by Fincantieri with the national supply chain of small and medium enterprises and equipped with combat and weapon systems from Leonardo, MBDA and Elettronica among others companies, alongside the Italian Navy’s 44 meters Tedeschi high-speed multipurpose vessel for special forces, two Lerici/Gaeta class mine countermeasures from Intermarine shipyard and Guardia di Finanza Monte Cimone patrol vessel from Cantiere Navale Vittoria. Among smaller platforms, Baglietto Navy is showing for the first time its new 15 meters Combat Boat 15, alongside Effebi 8 meters hybrid-propelled patrol craft in service with Guardia di Finanza, the MST Group FRISC 1200 Special Forces and Zodiac Milpro RHIBs. In the unmanned platform domain, Fincantieri was showing the SAND unmanned surface vehicle (USV) while Cabi Cattaneo and DRASS their Submarine Delivery Vehicles (SDVs) solutions.
Under the ‘Explore the Unexplore’ theme, this edition is being much focused on the underwater domain and the challenges the navies, industries, small companies, international organizations and maritime operators have to confront to protect and preserve it, without forgetting the blue economy and the relationships among the countries on the Mare Nostrum and nearby basins.
On the second day of the event, on the other side of La Spezia bay at Fincantieri’s Muggiano shipyard, the shipbuilder together with the Italian Navy and OCCAR as programme managing agency, celebrated the steel cutting of the second of the new AIP submarine being procured under the U212 NFS (Near Future Submarine) programme. During the new platform presentation at Seafuture, the OCCAR representative highlighted the Fincantieri design authority and strong content in terms of platform and combat systems being developed and provided by Italian industry, research centres and universities, starting from the under development Li-Ion batteries by an team including FIB-FAAM (Seri Industrial group), the joint venture Power4Future between Fincantieri SI and Faist Electronics, and Cetena under TÜV Rheinland survey and final certification, to the integrated platform and command management systems, sensors and weapons.
The Intermarine shipyard has been presenting the latest developments of the new generation mine countermeasures vessels programme for the Italian Navy as platforms capable to operate in the minefield with the support of embarked unmanned systems while Mariotti shipyard was showing the future special forces and diving support, submarine rescue system platform (SDO-SuRS) vessel capabilities.
The unmanned domain and related technologies are another key area of focus for the eight edition of Seafuture, with the world premiere unveiling of the Leonardo AWHero rotary uncrewed aerial system (RUAS) in the new configuration for the certification and series production. The 200 kg class RUAS features a complete new composite airframe and undercarriage, heavy fuel powerplant based on a unique twin-engine solution, alongside new payload bay and advanced sensors, building upon proven core avionics, data-link architecture and control station.
Fincantieri has been presenting its SAND USV demonstrator and latest programme developments. The platform has been involved in sea trails to demonstrate launch and recover capabilities with the AUVs from the Italian company and exhibitor Graal Tech. Fincantieri USV together with other Italian companies will take part in the NATO REPMUS 2023 exercise to demonstrate its controlling and communications capabilities as a key network node between underwater systems and ashore and at sea command and control stations.
Among the new national players in the underwater domain control for military and homeland security Saipem group was presenting the activities for the under development Hydroid family AUV for defence and security purposes derived from the Oil&Gas sector solutions, alongside Graal Tech with its X300 MCM Compact 300 meters capable lightweight AUV for mine countering missions and MDM Team with its low-cost micro AUV named Stok. The L3Harris Calzoni company was unveiling for the first time ever its new lightweight and compact Hunterwater unmanned suite for full-cycle mine hunting.
The underwater domain also saw Leonardo unveiling its ATHENA Mk2/U command management system under development initially for the U212 NFS submarine programme, as well as the ATAS towed sonar, Black Scorpion mini-torpedo and MJTE decoy, alongside Elettronica with its EW integrated suite and dedicated RESM/CESM antenna for NFS programme, German Hensoldt group with its family of penetrating and not penetrating submarine masts, French Exail group with its family of solutions for MCM and underwater surveillance, RTSYS with its AUVs and Sema training targets, Thales with its family of Captas VDS and MCM sonars and command and control system. During Seafuture 2023, Thales announced the future opening in La Spezia of an integrated service centre dedicated to the maintenance of its sonars in service with Italian Navy.
