Indra coordinates the first test of the European Perseus R&D project for maritime control and video surveillance

In collaboration with the Civil Guard, the multinational Indra has coordinated the first test at sea of the European R&D project Perseus, whose objective is maritime protection and video surveillance throughout Europe.

The Perseus R&D project (Protection of European BoRders and Seas through the IntElligent Use of Surveillance), is a European initiative coordinated by the Spanish multinational Indra to develop new capabilities and technological systems for maritime security and video surveillance in European seas and their borders.

This project of security and control of maritime borders in Europe, which has a budget of 43,7 millions of euros and a duration of four years, started the 24 September its first phase of large-scale testing, which will last a week, to demonstrate its viability and lay technological foundations for integration.

Indra coordinates the work of this European consortium, made up of twenty-nine partners from twelve EU countries, mostly with maritime borders.

In this first phase of testing, carried out in collaboration with the National Coordination Centre of the General Directorate of the Civil Guard in Madrid, a vessel in the western Mediterranean basin pretending to be illegally transporting immigrants has been detecting.

To do this, a CN-235 aircraft of the Civil Guard has been used. From its control center the necessary orders were sent, as received in real time the information collected by the aircraft, for detection, identification and monitoring of the target.

Subsequently, mission responsibility was transferred to the MRI P2006T light maritime surveillance aircraft, a low-cost solution developed by Indra, equipped with radar, day/night opto-electronic vision and ship identification systems (AIS9).

The aim of the exercise is to test the integration of different maritime surveillance technologies, in which the information collected by the SIVE and the sensors that carry the different aerial and naval platforms are combined, in order to control areas of the high seas not reached by coastal surveillance systems.

At the same time, the information collected in the control center of the Civil Guard of Madrid was shared with the nodes of the Perseus system, located in France, Italy and Portugal, so that all countries have a complete view of the routes and activities of vessels at sea.

Integration and interconnection of systems

The aim of the project is to develop and test a European maritime surveillance system by integrating and interconnecting existing national and European systems., as well as its updating and improvement with technological innovations.

The new maritime surveillance system will increase the effectiveness of existing systems by creating a shared maritime information environment that will benefit both national focal points, as well as the European External Borders Agency (Frontex) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

To do this, this 'system of systems' will take advantage of all the information available in european and national agencies, integrate and process it, so that higher quality information is generated, more filtered, reliable and, in short, most useful.

The solution will generate in real time a description of the situation from coastal areas to the high seas, as well as improving and automating the detection of vessels and their identification, especially in the event that they are suspects or non-allies. In this way, facilitate decision-making, reduce the reaction time of the authorities, facilitate the support and coordination of maritime interception and rescue operations, and improve its effectiveness.

The second campaign is planned for 2014 and will be developed in the Aegean Sea and the Samos Island Channel, with the possibility of spreading to the Black Sea.

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