Naval Group has inaugurated the MCM Lab and the Cyber Lab, two collaborative R&D laboratories created within its subsidiary Naval Group Belgium, the company writes in a press release. The labs bring together Belgian institutional, industrial and academic partners to develop innovations in the field of mine countermeasures and cyber security.
The inauguration ceremony took place at Naval Group Belgium’s premises in Brussels, in the presence of:
- Ludivine Dedonder, Belgian Minister of Defence
- Admiral Michel Hofman, Belgian Chief of Defence
- Admiral Jan de Beurme, Chief of Staff of the Belgian Navy
- Olivier de la Bourdonnaye, EVP Programs at Naval Group
- Eric Papin, EVP Innovation at Naval Group
In the scope of the inauguration, Naval Group Belgium’s team and their Belgian partners presented their first joint projects, focusing in particular on naval cyber security, mine countermeasure mission systems, robotics, artificial intelligence and acoustic discretion.
The MCM Lab is one of the key components of the industrial cooperation plan associated with the Belgian-Dutch mine countermeasure replacement program (rMCM) awarded in 2019 to Belgium Naval & Robotics, the consortium made up of Naval Group and ECA Group. This consortium was chosen by the Belgian and Royal Netherlands navies to supply 12 mine countermeasures vessels and a toolbox composed of around 100 drones.
Roles ofthe Labs
One of the main objectives of the MCM Lab is to reinforce the Belgian and European MCM ecosystem. Its ambition is to become the European reference centre for the research and development of technical solutions covering the different domains of mine warfare.
The MCM Lab is a collaboration between:
- Naval Group
- Naval Group Belgium
- ECA Robotics
- ECA Robotics Belgium
- Anglo Belgian Corporation
- DotOcean
- Space Applications Services
- the University of Gent
- the Université Libre de Bruxelles
- Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
- the Royal Belgium Institute of National Sciences (RBINS)
- the Royal Military Academy (RMA)
The Cyber Lab teams focus on the development of cybersecurity technologies for naval applications, in particular for ship and unmanned systems as well as for shore-basedinfrastructures. The work in progress involves Belgian and European partners such as NVISO. The Cyber Lab specialises in the implementation of cybersecurity measures developed for the benefit of the rMCM programme.
JH
