On March 14, 2019 at the premises of Ośrodek Badawczo-Rozwojowy Centrum Techniki Morskiej S.A. in Gdynia, within the permanent PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation) structural cooperation, an international conference on the HARMSPRO project (Harbor & Maritime Surveillance and Protection) took place. The meeting was carried out as part of the official visit of the project member states delegation on March 12-14, 2019, organized by the Navy Inspectorate of the General Command of the Armed Forces as the national project coordinator.

The conference was open to representatives of the Ministry of National Defense and to representatives of institutions and companies that expressed their interest in participating in the project. The meeting was attended by representatives of the institutions/organisational units of the Ministry of National Defense of Italy, Poland, Greece and Estonia as well as international representatives of industry and science. It should be noted that the project also involves the Portuguese side, which owing to circumstances beyond its control, could not attend the meeting in Poland. The main topic of the meeting was to discuss the assumptions of the international HARMSPRO project (Harbor & Maritime Surveillance and Protection), which aims to create a system of surveillance and protection of harbour and coastal waters.

The HARMSPRO project, in which Italy acts as a project Leader, is one of the dozen of new European Union ventures implemented as part of permanent structural cooperation in the field of PESCO  defense. It is anticipated that the project will provide the Member States with new capacity to carry out surveillance and protection of sea areas extending from coastal zones all the way to harbour areas and including communication routes as well as so-called ”choke points”, i.e. straits and canals, in order to ensure safety of both maritime traffic and structures. It is planned to deliver an integrated and comprehensive open architecture system that will enable the exchange, fusion and data processing in order to detect and identify the potential marine threats. The system will be based on maritime sensors, specialized software and on surface, underwater and aerial platforms. The assumptions of the project also include the development of a portable system, capable of use in the areas of harbours, anchorages and coastal waters.

CTM, part of the PGZ S.A. Corporate Group, is planning to participate in the HARMSPRO project, thereby to bring in its competences and experiences to it, both as a developer, supplier and integrator of comprehensive, integrated and multi-sensor solutions or their separate components (e.g. a portable magnetic barrier). This technology is used to protect naval units and critical infrastructure facilities, such as: harbours, gas and oil terminals, passenger terminals, oil platforms and other hydrotechnical structures. It should be emphasized that the Gdynia Center’s solutions have so far been used to protect harbours, secure the Tall Ships Races and for underwater protection of special surveillance objects during the session of the European Union Council and detection of illegal border crossing. It is important to note that significant part of the development and testing of systems, developed by OBR CTM S.A., was carried out as part of the NATO project entitled “Defense Against Terrorism Program of Work” (DAT PoW). In addition, OBR CTM S.A. participates in the OCEAN2020 international project, associated with HARMSPRO from the European Defense Agency (EDA), which main goal is to develop the potential of unmanned aerial, surface and underwater platforms to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance of maritime areas.