This year in REPMUS 24, UTEK has had double presence. On the one hand, the USV “Kunai” which was developed within the COINCIDENTE Program of the Ministry of Defense and transferred by it to the Armada, has been operated by Armada personnel from the control station located at the Naval Support Point of Troia (Portugal), where a large part of the unmanned vehicles participating in the exercise have been deployed. The “Kunai” has participated in numerous surface warfare missions with high reliability and a high degree of operational availability, as well as rapid deployment to the assigned area.
On the other hand, the USV “Kaluga” has been integrated into the BAM “Tornado” and has been operated by a UTEK team always available to meet the operational needs of the exercise and the Armada.
In addition to escort, protection, boarding and landing support missions, etc., a remote radar operation has been carried out, allowing the BAM to navigate in radio silence using the USV’s radar remotely from its combat system. The “Kaluga” is a veteran in this type of exercise, having participated a total of 4 times in NATO exercises.
On this occasion, and thanks to various lines of collaboration at an international level, the USV was equipped with a VIGY Observer HD camera from the French company SAFRAN and an EM2040C echo sounder from the Norwegian company KONGSBERG. Both pieces of equipment, together with the advanced capabilities of the USV, have allowed all types of operations related to surface warfare to be carried out, as well as REA (Rapid Environmental Assessment) missions. Regarding the latter, the IHM (Hydrographic Institute of the Armada) has placed an expert hydrography officer on board the BAM to provide support in the acquisition and analysis of data.
“Kaluga” also participated in collision avoidance trials organized by the European Defense Agency (EDA), which sponsored the exercise this year, demonstrating its ability to locate and avoid small floating objects, as well as other vessels. It also played a prominent role in the final demonstration offered to the group of personalities from the participating countries, which consisted of a landing operation, providing support with its sensors during the execution. In short, UTEK continues to consolidate itself as one of the most capable European companies in the development of unmanned vessels, with robust, reliable and high-capacity proprietary technologies, as well as a high degree of modularity that allows them to adapt to all types of operations, integrating a wide variety of payloads.
