Navigating New Frontiers in Maritime Innovation

The maritime sphere remains unparalleled in breadth and significance, and overseeing it is crucial for sustaining control over essential infrastructures and trade routes. In his recent speech at the World Defense Show 2024, Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo, Chairman of Leonardo, highlighted the potential threats and innovative avenues necessary to safeguard national security and the international economy.

The maritime sphere is a multifaceted and intricate environment. It encompasses activities on the surface of open waters, enclosed bodies of water, and navigable channels, as well as beneath the surface, to depths that are often uncharted and unfathomable. This domain involves every kind of human-engineered entity, whether above or below water, stationary or in motion, while also needing to prioritize the protection of all saltwater and freshwater species inhabiting the same space.

In addressing industry and governmental leaders at the recent World Defense Show, Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo, Chairman of Leonardo, noted that it is arguably the least understood and most complex global domain, potentially even more so than outer space. Nevertheless, it is a sector that is perpetually transforming, having been the focal point of significant technological advancements in recent years, with a burgeoning array of critical infrastructures linked to or hosted within this domain.

He elaborated: “Undersea pipelines and cables are fundamental components of the industrialized world: more than 550 submarine cables transmit 97% of global internet traffic; over 30,000km of seabed pipelines transport oil and gas from offshore drilling sites across nations. While these two infrastructures have raised considerable concerns in recent times, especially with notable disruptive events occurring in the Baltic, numerous other infrastructures are tied to international waters, including desalination facilities, ports, energy plants – from thermal to wind – and all rigs utilized for resource extraction from the ocean floor.

“Clearly, the maritime domain is also a vast waterway, likely the primary facilitator of the global economy, enabling the shipment of around 80% of goods traded worldwide via a relentless fleet of over 100,000 vessels transporting raw materials, components, semi-manufactured products, and finished goods to businesses and consumers.”

The maritime sphere’s role as a critical enabler of global supply chains also renders it a potential source of significant disruption, such as the port congestion observed in the wake of the Covid pandemic, which affected international deliveries. The ongoing crisis in Ukraine is presently influencing shipments, forcing companies to re-route cargos away from the Black Sea. In the Middle East, erratic activities in the Red Sea have compelled several major shipping firms to divert cargo around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, regardless of the consequent increase in time, costs, and pollution.

Pontecorvo discussed the numerous platforms and solutions that Leonardo provides, based on the company’s extensive multi-domain experience and system integration capability, all essential for enhancing maritime domain awareness and fostering comprehensive understanding of all elements and actions that could affect security, safety, economic activities, and the environment.

He stated: “Even understanding what occurs in such a diverse domain is a rather formidable challenge. We are persistently innovating in terms of sensors, data fusion, analytics, and also data interpretation and visualization models, as technology alone is simply insufficient.

“Mariners, coastal operators, offshore workers, air support teams, and economic and institutional stakeholders are individuals who require the most comprehensive and direct information to aid their decisions in directing or conducting maritime operations. As always, superior information is typically the key driver of competitiveness and excellence.

“For this reason, one of our areas of rapid and strong innovation has always been in command and control. This represents the apex of the information collection and generation process, where data from various actors converges and decisions are made, often by multiple stakeholders, making the process delicate, complex, and time-sensitive,” he added.

As one of the primary applications in the domain awareness framework, command and control remains a significant focus for innovation. This application must gather, synthesize, and integrate data from all available sources – including surface and underwater vessels, along with surveillance systems on land, at sea, on the seabed, in the air, and in space.

Achieving this requires secure communication channels, customized for specific source conditions. This varies from line of sight to beyond the horizon, from close-range laser channels to underwater long-wave technologies. This data is gathered and analyzed to foresee volumes, timings, and anticipated outcomes.

The only avenue to attain a competitive edge and authority in the maritime realm is through enhanced communication, and the defense sector is witnessing a surge of logical and operational innovations from key players, aimed at driving this transformation and achieving information supremacy.

Pontecorvo remarked: “Leonardo is diligently working within its labs and divisions on technological advancements and innovations for its products, systems, and platforms linked to the maritime domain. We continue to refine sensors and payloads. We emphasize profound digitalization, providing improved modeling and interpretation of data through high-performance computing platforms, artificial intelligence, and digital twins, not only of products but of intricate systems.”

The company seeks to bolster command and control by better integrating and disseminating unified information with a comprehensive multi-domain strategy, leveraging all realms and enabling maritime operations through improved awareness.

Pontecorvo concluded: “The breadth of the maritime domain is so extensive that its stakeholder group is as varied and diverse as one could envisage. A coordinated approach from all involved parties is essential for effective domain management, and this coordination can only be achieved through innovative solutions.”