On 14th – 15th January 2016, in the premises of the European Defence Agency (EDA) in Brussels, took place a 29th meeting of the Working Group, organized by the Directorate of Research & Technology within the Capability Technology Areas (CAPTECH), dedicated to the development of sea technologies. Once again the specialists from OBR CTM S.A. took part in the mentioned above meeting, where together with representatives of: European armament forces, scientific and research institutions and industry, create a group initiating and managing the research and development works in mentioned above area.
The Directorate of Research and Technology is a separated organ in the EDA structure, qualified to establish cooperation of Member States, in range of scientific and research common projects and programs, which aim is to improve defence capabilities. The basic tool in establishing the mentioned above cooperation is twelve Capability Technology Areas, where one is dedicated to development of sea technologies. It covers the subject related to the above-water and under-water platforms, underwater weapon systems, threats counteraction systems, simulators and training systems for the crew.
During the two-day meeting, which took place at EDA premises, the condition of currently run researches, future programs and projects connected with development of the sea technologies were discussed. The discussion included projects related to unmanned sea platforms, in which at this moment OBR CTM S.A. is involved, and will also be involved in the second one, in the near future.
Buried Mines (BURMIN), first of the projects is designed to eliminate technological gaps is the area of detection and neutralization of bottom and buried mines as well as working out common standards for the future unmanned systems, performing these tasks. It is performed within the „European Unmanned Maritime Systems (UMS)” program, where CTM, as a part of the international consortium is responsible for underwater, dynamically stabilized, sensory detection systems, tested at the end of 2015 .
The second project is connected with continuation of already ended with success the „Modular Lightweight Minesweeping” (MLM) project, also performed within the UMS program. As a result of the mentioned above project CTM developed the technology demonstrator of the modular lightweight minesweep, designed to counter sea mines. The aim of the future project will be further development of the minesweep, including development of its new version with different towing depth, working from several to tens of meter under the water, which gives more possibilities of operational use of mine detection system.