France joins maritime unmanned systems project
NATO has announced that France has joined a multinational effort to cooperate on the development of maritime unmanned systems.
Launched in October 2018, the project aims to support the implementation of NATO’s reinforced maritime posture, as endorsed at the 2018 Brussels Summit. The initiative will allow Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the US to field more flexible and interoperable maritime unmanned systems at lower expense.
The unmanned systems will provide manned assets support in areas such as the detection and clearing of mines and finding and tracking of submarines.
Camille Grand, assistant secretary general for defence investment, NATO, said: ‘Today, we are operating crew-dependent platforms with constrained operational awareness, but tomorrow we will increasingly use integrated autonomous systems, able to work together and complement existing manned platforms.’
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