The maritime patrol version of Safran’s PATROLLER drone has shown its ability to meet the maritime surveillance needs of navies or European maritime surveillance agencies as part of the European project OCEAN2020, Safran writes in a press release.

The project is funded by the European Commission within the scope of the European Defence Agency’s preparatory defence research action contract. The project entailed naval exercises in the Baltic Sea at the end of August, bringing together 18 partners, including five navies, for the final OCEAN2020 demonstration. It was designed to show that the combined use of drones operating in different maritime environments (air, surface, underwater) would give command centres a better grasp of the tactical situation.

The PATROLLER drone showed its interoperability during the demonstration, including the real-time transmission of data from its sensors (radar tactical situation, multispectral videos) to the tactical operations centre (at a Swedish army test centre in Ravlunda) and to the Maritime Operations Control Centre (MOC) at the European Defence Agency premises.

JH